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WILTSHIRE
STUDIES

The Wiltshire Archaeologica
and Natural History Magazine

~ Volume 97 2004

HISTORY MUSEUM
-6 APR 2004

| __ PURCHASED

The Wiltshire Archaeological
and Natural History Magazine
Volume 97

2004

Published by
The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society
41 Long Street,
Devizes, Wilts. SN10 INS
Telephone 01380 727369
Fax 01380 722150
email wanhs@wiltshireheritage.org.uk

Founded 1853

Company No. 3885649

Registered with Charity Commission No. 1080096
VAT No. 140 2791 91

THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE
VOLUME 97 (2004)

ISSN 0262 6608
© Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society and authors 2004

Hon. Editors: Andrew Reynolds, BA, PhD FSA, and John Chandler BA, PhD.
Hon. Local History Editor: James Thomas, BA, PhD, FRHistsS.

Hon. Natural History Editor: Michael Darby, PhD, FRES

Hon. Reviews Editor: Michael Marshman, ALA.

Editorial Assistant: Lorna Haycock, BA, PhD, Dip.ELH, Cert Ed.

We acknowledge with thanks grants towards the cost of publishing specific papers in this volume from the
following bodies: Wessex Archaeology, for ‘Investigation of the Whitesheet Down Environs 1989-90: Neolithic
Causewayed Enclosure and Iron Age Settlement’, by Mick Rawlings; and for ‘An Archaeological and
Environmental Study of the Neolithic and Later Prehistoric Landscape of the Avon Valley and Durrington
Walls Environs’, by Rosamund M.J. Cleal; Cotswolds Aggregates, for ‘Prehistoric Settlement and Medieval
to Post-Medieval Field Systems at Latton Lands, by Dan Stansbie and Granville Lewis; ASI Heritage
Consultants, for ‘Recent work at Barton Grange Farm, Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, 1998—2003, by Michael
Heaton and William Moffatt; and the Bill Petch Bequest, for “The Wiltshire Wildlife Trust’s Vera Jeans
Nature Reserve at Jones’s Mill, Pewsey, by Beverley Heath.

The journals issued to volume 69 as parts of The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine (Part A
Natural History; Part B Archaeology and Local History) were from volumes 70 to 75 published under separate
titles as The Wiltshire Natural History Magazine and The Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine. With volume 76
the magazine reverted to its combined form and title. The cover title ‘Wiltshire Heritage Studies’ (volume
93) and ‘Wiltshire Studies’ (volume 94 onwards) should not be used in citations. The title of the journal, The
Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, remains unchanged.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior
permission of the Society and authors.

Typeset in Plantin by John Chandler

and produced for the Society by

Salisbury Printing Co. Ltd, Greencroft Street, Salisbury SP1 1JF
Printed in Great Britain

Contents

‘In the Newest Manner’: Social Life in Late Georgian Devizes, by Lorna Haycock
Trees of Marlborough College and Environs, by Fack Oliver

Miss Etheldred Benett (1775-1845): A Preliminary Note on her Correspondence, by R.7.
Cleevely

Thomas Kytson and Wiltshire Clothmen, 1529 -1539, by Colin Brett

Neolithic of the Wylye Valley 1: Millennium Re-investigation of the Corton Long Barrow, ST
9308 4034, by Michael F. Allen and Fulie Gardiner, with a contribution by Rob Scaife

A Welsh Bard in Wiltshire: Iolo Morganwg, Silbury and the Sarsens, by fon Cannon and Mary-
Ann Constantine

An Early Anglo-Saxon Cross-roads Burial from Broad Town, North Wiltshire, by Bob Clarke
Arable Weed Survey of a Farm in South Wiltshire, by Barbara Last
Lodowick Muggleton — Native of Chippenham? by Kay S. Taylor

Prehistoric Settlement and Medieval to Post-Medieval Field Systems at Latton Lands, by Dan
Stansbie and Granville Lewis, with contributions by Alistair Barclay, Fulie Hamilton, Elizabeth
Huckerby, Hugo Lamdin-Whymark, Ruth Shaffrey, Elizabeth Stafford, Maisie Taylor, Jane Timby
and Annsofie Witkin

Investigation of the Whitesheet Down Environs 1989-90: Neolithic Causewayed Enclosure
and Iron Age Settlement, by Mick Rawlings, Michael 7 Allen and Frances Healy, with
contributions by Rosamund M.7. Cleal, M. Corney, Rowena Gale, Pat Hinton, D. McOmish, 7.M.
Maltby, Elaine L. Morris and Robert G. Scaife

A. D. Passmore and the Stone Circles of North Wiltshire, by Aubrey Burl

Recent work at Barton Grange Farm, Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, 1998-2003, by Michael
Heaton and William Moffatt

An Archaeological and Environmental Study of the Neolithic and Later Prehistoric
Landscape of the Avon Valley and Durrington Walls Environs, by Rosamund M.7. Cleal,
Michael F. Allen and Caron Newman, with contributions from S. Hamilton-Dyer, Phil Harding,
Lorraine Mepham, Elaine L. Morris, Robert G. Scaife and S.F. Wyles

106

144

197

211

218

Wiltshire and Other Things in Common: Sir Peter Scott CH CBE DFC FRS (1909-1989) and
Bernard Venables MBE (1907-2001), by Brian Edwards

The Wiltshire Wildlife Trust’s Vera Jeans Nature Reserve at Jones’s Mill, Pewsey, by Beverley
Heath with contributions by other authors

An Investigation into the Life of A.D. Passmore, ‘A Most Curious Specimen’, by Laura Phillips
Notes and Shorter Contributions

A Medieval Pilgrim Badge from West Knoyle, by Nick Griffiths

The Arundell’s London Estate, by Barry Williamson

The Minerva Plaque from Charlton Down, by Paul Robinson

The Rugged Oil Beetle (Meloe rugosus Marsham) discovered in Wiltshire, by Michael Darby
Excavation and Fieldwork in Wiltshire 2002

Index

249

255

273

293

294

296

298

300

309

The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural
History Society

The Society was founded in 1853. Its activities include
the promotion of the study of archaeology (including
industrial archaeology), history, natural history and
architecture within the county; the issue of a Magazine,
and other publications, and the maintenance of a Museum,
Library, and Art Gallery. There is a programme of lectures
and excursions to places of archaeological, historical and
scientific interest.

The Society’s Museum contains important collections
relating to the history of man in Wiltshire from earliest
times to the present day, as well as the geology and natural
history of the county. It is particularly well known for its
prehistoric collections. The Library houses a
comprehensive collection of books, articles, pictures,
prints, drawings and photographs relating to Wiltshire.
The Society welcomes the gift of local objects, printed
material, paintings and photographs to add to the
collections.

The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History
Magazine is the annual journal of the Society and is issued
free to its members. For information about the availability
of back numbers and other publications of the Society,
enquiry should be made to the Curator.

Publication by the Wiltshire Archaeological and
Natural History Society does not imply that the Society
endorses the views expressed; the factual content and the
opinions presented herein remain the responsibility of the
authors.

Notes for Contributors

Contributions for the Magazine should be on subjects
related to the archaeology, history or natural history of
Wiltshire. While there is no fixed length, papers should
ideally be under 7,000 words, though longer papers will
be considered if of sufficient importance. Shorter, note
length, contributions are also welcome. All contributions
should be typed/ word processed, with text on one side of
a page only, with good margins and double spacing.
Language should be clear and comprehensible.
Contributions of article length should be accompanied by
a summary of about 100 words. Please submit two copies
of the text (with computer disk if possible) and clear
photocopies of any illustrations to the editors at the
Museum, 41 Long Street, Devizes, Wiltshire, SN10 1NS.
A further copy should be retained by the author. The
editors will be pleased to advise and discuss with intending
contributors at any stage during the preparation of their
work. When submitting text or graphics on disk, Word or

Rich Text Format files are preferred for text, jpeg or tiff
format for graphics. Contributors are encouraged to seek
funding from grant-making bodies towards the Society’s
publication costs wherever possible.

Referencing: The Harvard System of referencing (author,
date and page, in parentheses within the text) is preferred:
e.g. ‘... one sheep and one dog lay close together (Clay 1925,
69)’. References in footnotes should be avoided if at all
possible. Only give references which are directly
applicable, repeating as little as possible. All references
cited in the paper should be listed in the bibliography using
the following style, with the journal name spelled in full,
and the place and publisher of books/ monographs given :

For a paper:

PITTS, M. W.and WHITTLE, A. 1992. The development
and date of Avebury. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society
58, 203-12

(Note that in citations Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural

History Magazine is abbreviated to WANHM)

For a book or monograph:
SMITH, LE, 1965, Windmill Hill and Avebury: Excavations
by Alexander Keiller, 1925-39. Oxford: Clarendon Press

For a paper in a book or monograph:

FITZPATRICK, A., 1984, ‘The deposition of La Téne
metalwork in watery contexts in Southern England’,
in B. Cunliffe and D. Miles (eds), Aspects of the Iron
Age in Central Southern Britain, 178-90. Oxford:
University Committee for Archaeology

Endnotes can be used for specific information that cannot
otherwise be comfortably incorporated in the main body
of the text.

Illustrations need to be clear and easily reproducible, the
format and proportions following that of the Magazine. If
possible, all original artwork should not exceed A3 before
reduction. If not supplied as computer graphic files,
drawings should be produced on drafting film or high
quality white paper using black ink. Detail and lettering
should not be so small that it will become lost in reduction.
Mechanical lettering (dry transfer or computer generated)
is preferred over hand lettering. Photographs should be
supplied as good quality black and white prints, and
transparencies and colour prints avoided wherever
possible. Original illustrations and photographs should
only be sent once a contribution has been accepted.

Offprints: Ten offprints of each article will be given free
(to be shared between joint authors). Offprints are not
given for notes and shorter contributions.

WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL
AND NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY

BOARD OF TRUSTEES (from AGM 22 November 2003)

Chairman
Lt. Col. C Chamberlain

Deputy Chairmen
J H Thomas BA, PhD, FRHistS
D L Roseaman BSc(Eng), CEng, MIMechE

Other Elected Trustees

Miss A Arrowsmith BSc

Ms C Conybeare MA, FMA

B K Davison OBE, BA, FSA, MIFA
Mrs W P Lansdown

W A Perry MSc (Hon Treasurer)

R M Rowland BSc

JSS Stewart BSc, MB, ChB, FRCS
MJH Stiff BA, DPhil

Mrs J Triggs

Nominated Trustees

Mrs K J Walling (Member, Devizes Town Council)

PR. Saunders, BA, FSA, FMA, FRSA (Director, Salisbury & South Wiltshire Museum)
L H Grundy OBE (Member, Kennet District Council)

D H Lay (Member, Wiltshire County Council)

W AB Snow (Member, Wiltshire County Council)

In attendance:
T Craig BA, MA, AMA, DipMgmt (Wiltshire County Council Heritage Services Manager)

OFFICERS

Curator P H Robinson, PhD, FSA, AMA

Assistant Curator and Keeper of Natural Sciences A S Tucker, BSc, AMA

Sandell Librarian and Archivist Mrs L. Haycock, BA, PhD, Dip ELH, Cert.Ed.

Outreach Officer Ms R Stalker HND, BA, MA

Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History Magazine, vol. 97 (2004), pp. 1-14

‘In the Newest Manner’: Social Life in Late

Georgian Devizes
by Lorna Haycock

This paper examines the social networks and cosmopolitan culture of late eighteenth-century Devizes, which reflected
not only the sophistication of a mature and prosperous community, but also the re-awakening of provincial life in the

Georgian period.

Pleasures and business divide the life of man. The
agreeableness of pleasures corrects the bitterness or
refreshes and unbends us from the fatigue of
business!.

Alongside the well-known developments of the
Georgian period — the industrial and agrarian
changes, the transport developments and the wars
and overseas trade which resulted in the acquisition
of empire — other important social and economic
trends can be traced. The eighteenth century saw
the rise of a consumer society of social emulation
and cosmopolitan fashion and the development of a
distinctive Georgian ethos. The growing wealth of
‘the middling sort’? was channelled increasingly
into leisure pursuits, voluntary associations and
cultural activities, emulating the lifestyle of ‘the
quality’ and creating a new wave of urban
sociability, but also causing a polarisation between
cosmopolitan and popular culture.

A remarkable feature of late eighteenth-century
Devizes was the advance of professional men such
as doctors and lawyers in the town’s hierarchy.
They played an important role in the development
of a fashionable urban culture, which came to be
regarded as a mark of social status, a badge of the
charmed world of the gentry and bourgeoisie. The

memorial tablet of John Garth M.P. (d. 1764) in St
Mary’s church, states that:

to the sedentary way of living which he fell into from
an early and continued love for the pleasures of
literature, the illness was chiefly owing that
occasioned his Death

Book collecting and reading for pleasure and
instruction, long the preserve of the clergy and
gentry, spread among professionals and traders in
the late eighteenth century and became part of the
background of polite life. Newspapers made the
printed word more accessible and London books
were now increasingly available in country
bookshops. In the mid-eighteenth century,
Dissenting minister Samuel Fancourt had
established a circulating library in Salisbury,
providing books within a sixty-mile radius;
doubtless he had Devizes subscribers.’Publishers’
advertising and the growth of adult literacy helped
to stimulate the demand for a wide variety of
secular literature. James Lackington wrote in 1791 :
‘I cannot help observe that the sale of books has
increased prodigiously within the last twenty years .
.. All ranks and degrees now read’.’ Devizes doctors
and surgeons were among the foremost owners of
books, mostly volumes on science and physic.
Thomas Gisborne advised that the physician

Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History Society, The Museum, 41 Long Street, Devizes SN10 1NS

2 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

should study surgery, chemistry, botany, natural
philosophy, read medical tracts in French and
German, but also peruse ‘works of general
information and taste’. Of Dr Spalding’s 400
books, mostly medical, some were also on history.’
Attorneys William Salmon and Wadham Locke had
large collections of law books which they insured
against fire, and traders, too, were now stocking
their bookshelves. Gisborne exhorted them to
‘peruse eminent authors and not to be absorbed in
mere worldly concerns’. °

Banker Charles Tylee’s library of 700 volumes
included plays by Ben Jonson and Beaumont and
Fletcher.’Bookseller Thomas Smith ordered
volumes I and II of Britton’s Beauties of Wiltshire
‘for my own private library’,’ while clothier
Frederick Sandwell possessed the works of 600
‘admired authors’, including 21 volumes of Buffon’s
Natural History in French and 21 volumes of
Hume’s History of England.’ John Anstie had a
‘select’ library of books, including the moral and
heroic History of the Life of Gustavus Adolphus of
Sweden.'° While staying with his uncle John in
Rowde in 1799, Benjamin Anstie wrote that he was
reading Locke’s Essay concerning Human Under-
standing.'! Prison Governor William Brutton could
reach for The Memonrs of Sully, Byron’s Don Juan or
Life in London.'? Further down the social scale,
salesman William Neate had 60 books, including
poems and volumes of Voltaire’s works, indicating
an awareness of current political writing as well as
the contemporary popularity of poetry, fostered by
such publications as The Gentleman’s Magazine."
Thomas Lawrence (sen.), landlord of The Bear, kept
a bookcase in every room for the use of his guests and
personal friends. During one of his frequent visits,
David Garrick presented his host with a folio copy of
The Spectator, the ultimate manual of politeness and
sensibility. '* Elizabeth Blackburn noted in her
journal that cabinet maker Richard Knight’s eldest
son, John, had a ‘good solid understanding
cultivated by reading’. Women, too, possessed books,
Miss Carpenter’s library including works by
Addison, Pope, Swift and Shakespeare. Theological
works, bibles, almanacs and encyclopaedias featured
in humbler homes and were prized legacies, but
literacy was essentially associated with social and
economic position and was seen as a way of being
admitted to the town’s genteel society . The book
became an expression of status and fashion. As The
Book of Trades commented in 1818 ‘It is by books
that men generally become distinguished for their
intelligence, probity and worth’. '°

Culture and literacy could be proclaimed in
subscription lists, which not only cut local
publishers’risks but also boosted sales through a
dazzling roll call of eminent patrons.'’ Some
residents, linked by professional or educational
ties, subscribed to new books published in Devizes
and Salisbury, ranging from topographical
publications to works offering spiritual comfort
and guidance (see Table 1 below). The Andrews and
Dury map of Wiltshire of 1773 and Tunnicliff’s
Topographical Survey of 1791 allowed the
subscriber’s residence or coat of arms to appear as
well as his name. !®

Table 1.Devizes Subscribers to locally published
books and maps

Title Number of Subscribers
A Treatise on Peace of Soul and Content of Mind (1765) 4
Overton, T C, Original Designs of Temples (1766) 16
Taylor, A, Treatise on the Ananas or Pineapple (1769) 3
Description of the Antiquities of Wilton House (1769) 1
Cooke, W, The Way to the Temple of True Honour and
Fame(1773) 64
Andrews and Dury, Map of Wiltshire (1773) 1

Tunnicliff, W, A Topographical Survey of the Counties
of Hants, Wilts, Dorset, Somerset, Devon and
Cornwall(1791) 14

Book clubs and circulating libraries were
eighteenth-century phenomena. By 1810 a Book
Society existed in Devizes. Each of the thirty
subscribers could propose books on_ literary
subjects not exceeding £1 15s. in price and after
circulation to members in order of their admission
to the Society, books could be bought for half the
cost price. Periodicals taken included the
Edinburgh, Monthly, Quarterly and Annual Reviews,
The Gentleman’s Magazine and Rivington’s Annual
Register. Thus leading townsmen could keep abreast
of the latest published works and contemporary
opinion.”

That there were serious book and antiquarian
collectors in the town is illustrated by library sale
catalogues. One of the largest sales ever staged in
Devizes took place over nine days in 1818, when the
collection of John Collins was auctioned.
Descended from a seventeenth-century namesake
mathematician, surgeon Collins was a man of wide-
ranging taste, covering the arts, sciences,
philosophy, history, botany, travel and the classics.
His unique collection of 15,000 prints, engravings,
oil paintings and miniatures included works by

‘IN THE NEWEST MANNER’: SOCIAL LIFE IN LATE GEORGIAN DEVIZES 3

Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Reynolds and Hogarth.
Maps, books, coins, tortoiseshell cabinets, gold and
diamond watches and Etruscan vases filled the sale
rooms alongside the complete dress of a Highland
chief and ‘the cloak of a Chief of Owhyee’.”” Devizes
antiquary Dr James Davis’s collection of one
hundred books sold at Covent Garden in 1771
included Caxton’s Chronicle, A History of Fossils and
works on Druids, coins and medals. ”'Fifteen years
later, the extensive library of Peleg Morrison was
sold over three days, ranging from Virgil and
Chaucer to Fournals of the House of Commons and
Miller’s Garden Dictionary. The _ library’s
composition is tabulated below:

Table 2. The composition of Peleg Morrison’s
library 1786

Greek, Latin, Hebrew, French 152
Divinity 192
History 74
Law 36
Novels, romances 90
Physic 19
Prose, verse 159
Total 722

Source: (W)iltshire (A)rchaeological and (N)atural
(H)istory (S)ociety (L)ibrary: Sale Contents catalogue 1.1

Devizes M.P Joshua Smith’s library showed
similar eclecticism. As magistrates, Church patrons
and landowners, gentry would need books on law,
the Church and local history, but Smith’s collection
embraced all aspects of the arts, with works in
French, perhaps stimulated by foreign travel.

Table 3. Joshua Smith’s Library 1820

Subject Volumes
Books in French 146
Classics,Drama, English Literature, Poetry 305
Dictionaries, Grammars, Reviews, Rhetoric 63
Divinity and Ecclesiastical History 164
English History, Politics and Topography 345
Biography and Heraldry 175
History and Travel 295
Law 17
Natural History and Botany 53
Prints and Architecture 85
Total 1,648

Source: W.A.N.H.S.L., S.C. 30. 42, A Catalogue of the
Valuable and Extensive Library of Books, late the Property of
Foshua Smith Esq. (1820).

One book in Smith’s library subscribed to by
three Devizes residents was A Treatise on the Ananas
or Pineapple by the gardener at New Park, Adam
Taylor. This was published in Devizes by Thomas
Burrough in 1769, ten years before the standard
work on the subject by William Speechly, head
gardener to the Duke of Portland.’’Taylor gave
practical instructions on the culture of pineapples
and melons and claimed to be ‘the first who has
brought it to an improved size and excellence
without the assistance of Fire’. The gift of the exotic
pineapple became a kind of status symbol. Baker
George Sloper was delighted to receive one from
Mrs Sutton in 1808,” and the fruit featured on the
menu at Stephen Neate’s Mayoral feast in 1816.”

Baker Sloper took his _ horticultural
involvement further, belonging to the Devizes
Gardening Club established in 1754. The medium
loam soil round Devizes was ideal for cultivating a
wide variety of plants, and Edward Dore’s map of
1759 shows extensive gardens behind Devizes
houses. The town garden, an early eighteenth-
century London innovation, spread to the
provinces and gardening became an important
leisure activity. A correspondent to The Gentleman’s
Magazine recommended gardening as a hobby to
achieve health and pleasure. * Devizes bookseller
Thomas Burrough could provide the latest
gardening manuals such as Everyman his own
Gardener, Miller’s Garden Dictionary or A Complete
Body of Gardening , printed in weekly numbers, *
and doubtless could obtain Curtis’s Botanical
Magazine listing plants, trees and shrubs for
different situations and the work to be done every
month in the kitchen, fruit and pleasure gardens.
Local naturalist John Legge of Market Lavington
wrote A Treatise on the Art of Grafting and Inoculation
(1780) and contributed natural history articles to
The Ladies’ Magazine.’ In the eighteenth century
many new plants were introduced from the East,
such as the camellia, rhododendron, begonia, phlox
and aster, and the cultivation of tulips, auriculas,
carnations and pinks became an absorbing interest.
Resulting perhaps from their introduction by
immigrants from the Low Countries and northern
France in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
florists’ feasts had been held in towns and cities
such as Bath, Gloucester, Newcastle and Norwich
since the early eighteenth century. In Devizes, the
Cucumber Feast at The White Bear and the
Carnation Feast at The Elm Tree, with silver and
monetary prizes, were highlights in the social
calendar, accessible to all classes and thus providing

+ THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

a bond between social ranks. Josiah Eyles
Heathcote nurtured plants in a greenhouse and in
melon frames,** and banker Charles Tylee used a
‘garden engine’, perhaps afterwards browsing in his
New Botanic Garden with its 133 rich plates.”
Brewer James Gent possessed a greenhouse with
stove and pipes, filled with choice plants, and his
library contained 15 volumes of Langley’s Botany
and Sowerby’s English Botany,” of special interest to
his wife, who was a botanist and geologist.

The Georgian period was a time of classification
of the natural world and a great fact-finding stage in
the development of biology. The growing number
of natural history publications in the second half of
the eighteenth century and the popularity of works
such as Goldsmith’s History of the Earth and
Animated Nature (1774) and Gilbert White’s Natural
History of Selborne (1789) illustrate a widespread
interest in the natural universe as a manifestation of
God’s goodness. This prompted an enthusiasm for
collecting specimens such as fossils, shells, flowers
and seeds and Southey noted the ‘English passion
for collecting rarities’.*! Furthermore, a large
section of society could now afford to do this.
Brewer James Gent’s wife corresponded with the
famous naturalist and artist, James Sowerby (1757-
1822), sending him fossils ‘of my own finding’ from
Fyfield near Marlborough and receiving nine
specimens from his collection in return. *Sowerby
even named a fossil shell after her, Helix genti.** Mrs
Gent also asked him to send models of ‘your
Crystallography’. She subscribed to the magazine
British Mineralogy, which she obtained through the
local bookseller. The correspondence of William
Wroughton Salmon with Sowerby throws some
light on his botanical interests. On 6 May 1800 he
dispatched in a basket by one of the London
coaches a vernal variety of Colchicum autumnale
which he had not been able to identify ‘in any
British Flora’. Along with a friend ‘who is in the
habit of collecting indigenous plants’, he had seen
this colchicum in a pasture field near Devizes and
asked Sowerby if he would show it to geologist Dr
William Smith.“ On 21 May 1810 he sent further
variegated specimens of the plants, promising to
forward some cockscomb oysters and fossils from
the chalk pits, which Sowerby had requested.*
Interest in palaeontology was perhaps stimulated
by the discovery of spars and fossils during the
canal excavations, while the proximity of pasture
land and the chalk downlands provided a fertile
field for botanical investigation and geological
collection as well as for walking. Elizabeth

Blackburn, on her visit to Devizes in 1810, recorded
expeditions to Roundway and Hartmoor and
rambling in nursery gardens by the side of the
canal, where they observed the construction of
bridges and locks.” ‘Airing’ was considered healthy
in the eighteenth century, and in Devizes the
countryside was conveniently close.

During the later Georgian period, there was also
widespread interest in agricultural improvement,
reflected in the establishment of agricultural
societies, of which there were 50 by 1800, and the
proliferation of journals such as The Farmer’s
Magazine (1776) and The Annals of Agriculture
(1784). Agriculture was a predictable interest for
the propertied classes in the rich farming area
around Devizes. James Sutton discussed farming
matters with Henry Addington: ‘I have much to say
to you on the subject of farming when we meet and
shall hope you will find yourself able to visit my
new building and make the tour of my Fields’”’
Concern about the weather’s effects on the harvest
is apparent in their letters: ‘:I have, great and small,
114 mouths grazing before my window and only
two acres cut for winter provender; of course our
anxiety rises or is depressed by the appearance of
every cloud’.**Professionals and traders, too, had
close involvement with agriculture. Lawyer
Wadham Locke farmed at Melksham, Orcheston
and Rowde and grocer Charles Simpkins had a farm
at Avebury, nine miles distant. Brewer James Gent
kept stock and grew crops in Rowde, two miles
away, his horses, cows and pigs doubtless being fed
during the winter on waste mash from the
brewery.”

Local interest in agricultural improvement is
illustrated by several applications for premiums
made from the Devizes area to the Royal Society for
the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and
Commerce, founded in 1754. Farmer Thomas
Twittey from nearby Bromham submitted a recipe
for destroying turnip fly in 1759.*°Six years later
Devizes wheelwright Robert Dowse’s description of
his newly invented 4 h.p. plough for draining land
was witnessed by twenty-two of the town’s leading
inhabitants, including John Anstie, the Rev.
Edward Innes, Wadham Locke, William Salmon
and John Tylee. *! In 1768 brewer Charles Rose
applied for a premium for cultivating the greatest
quantity of the English madder plant upon an acre
of land, detailing the planting process and the
manufacture of different qualities for which he had
found a ready local sale.*’Ten years later clothier
John Anstie presented a machine for slicing turnips

‘IN THE NEWEST MANNER’: SOCIAL LIFE IN LATE GEORGIAN DEVIZES 5

to the Royal Society on behalf of a local farmer ‘a
very deserving Man — I wish he may meet with
encouragement. Anstie probably — echoed
widespread local sentiment when he wished
‘success to the laudable endeavours of your Society
for the promotion of useful knowledge’. In 1813
this zeal for improvement led to the formation in
Devizes of the Wiltshire Society for the
Encouragement of Agriculture, whose 50 or so
members included lawyers Locke and Salmon, and
brewers and bankers John and Charles Tylee. The
Society awarded prizes for stock, crops and
husbandry, and held ploughing matches and sheep
shearings, with monetary prizes, as well as
publishing essays on agricultural topics.

This institution was a local replica of the
prestigious Bath and West Society founded in 1777,
to which 14 of the town’s élite belonged.” The
Society’s aims were ‘the encouragement of industry
and ingenuity. . .to excite a spirit of enquiry... and
to bring speculation and theory to the test of
accurate experiment’.** At monthly meetings,
members could mingle with gentlemen, farmers
and manufacturers from Somerset, Gloucestershire,
Dorset and Bristol, proud to be associated with
such famous figures as Joseph Priestley, Arthur
Young, Coke of Norfolk and Thomas Davis, and at
the Annual General Meeting could indulge in
‘much interesting debate’.*° They could also
correspond with members in Russia and America,
broadening their commercial and agricultural
horizons, making useful contacts and learning of
new techniques and inventions. One AGM was
graced by the presence of a Mohawk Indian chief,
visiting this country to learn about agriculture.””
The Society made its existence visible in Devizes by
carrying out drilling experiments on Charles
Fitchew’s farm at Roundway,** while John Gale of
Stert near Devizes conducted trials for them in
fattening oxen on potatoes dressed with steam.”
Clothier John Anstie, a member of the Society’s
Committee of Manufactures and Commerce and
also a Vice-President, was much involved in the
movement to improve British wool, regulariy
evaluating different breeds of sheep and testing new
inventions for the Society, such as a machine for
drying cloth.

In an age of growing intellectual curiosity,
science, too, had its followers in the town,
particularly among nonconformists. In 1770 Joseph
Priestley (1733-1804), who had conducted his
experiments at Bowood six miles away, published
his work on electricity. Jan Ingen Housz (1730-

1799) also developed some of his scientific ideas at
Lord Shelburne’s house.” | Newspapers,
encyclopaedias, The London Magazine, The Annual
Register and The Gentleman’s Magazine were full of
scientific information and enquiry. ' As John
Locke had said ‘a gentleman must look into
(natural philosophy) to fit himself for
conversation’. Interest in the subject, the
collection of scientific and natural history books,
instruments and specimens became part of a late-
eighteenth century gentleman’s culture , separating
‘the middling sort’ from the lower orders. Thomas
Gisborne recommended scientific experiments and
botanical enquiries as suitable pursuits for an
apothecary’s spare time.°* Prison Governor William
Brutton had a day and night telescope, while John
Anstie possessed a patent copying machine a ‘neat
electrifying machine with apparatus, a reflecting
telescope brass mounted and two 12-inch globes’.**

In 1811, William Salmon ordered chemical
apparatus from the catalogues of German-born
scientist Friedrich Accum and Alexander Garden,
experimental chemists in Soho.» Salmon’s interest
had perhaps been stimulated by visiting scientific
lecturers. Public lectures, made possible by
improved transport, were the current craze in
England among the fashionable bourgeoisie, who
aspired to partake of upper class culture. Speakers
concentrated on the gentry centres in southern
England, their high charges — 2s. 6d. — being
directed at the upper end of the market. Some
members of the Anstie family attended lectures in
Devizes on The Transparent Orrery, displaying the
universe with its stars and planets.*° In 1784 Mr
Waltire visited Devizes to give:

His Courses of Natural Philosophy and Chemistry. . .
Astronomy, Optics,
Pneumatics, Hydrostatics, and Electricity. . .The

including Mechanics,
courses of Chemistry are applied to explain the
principles of Mineralogy, Agriculture, the Various
Arts, natural appearances, and particularly to impress
such Manufactories as depend upon it. Both courses
are very full of observations and Experiments and
due care is taken to join the pleasing and the
important.”

It seems likely that Anstie and Salmon attended
these lectures, along with other burgesses with
enquiring minds.

Some houses contained musical as well as
scientific instruments and both sexes delighted in
music, despite The Ladies’ Library advising caution
in approaching music, which ‘enervates the soul

6 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

and exposes it to be conquer’d by the first
Temptation which invades it. ** Musical
instruments were mentioned in seventeenth-
century inventories, Devizes surgeon Edward Anne
leaving ‘three pairs of organs, two virginals and one
chest of violls’, valued at £100 in 1687.°Eighteenth-
century family group paintings often depict
musical settings , with singers, harpsichord and
instrumentalists. Although in the production of
new music eighteenth-century Britain lagged
behind Germany, Italy and France, the country was
receptive to foreign influences. Many Continental
craftsmen, fleeing from the Seven Years’ War, had
begun producing reasonably priced musical
instruments in England. Favourite instruments
in Devizes were the fiddle, the piano and the flute.
Newspapers advertised instruction books, such as
The Complete Tutor to the Violin and the common
flute was easy to learn. Benjamin Anstie wrote from
Rowde in 1799 :‘There are four in the family who
can play on the flute and one on the piano’.*' Amelia
Anstie thanked her brother Samuel in London for
procuring a piano for her : ‘It arrived last Saturday
and it is indeed a very nice one. I like the tone and it
is really very cheap at eighteen guineas’. ° Dr
William Barwis possessed a harpsichord by Keene ©’
and builder’s wife Mrs Whichcord owned a violin
and a piano. The prison governor played a flute”,
and Josiah Eyles Heathcote operated a barrel
organ.” Such activities were perhaps stimulated by
musical meetings held in the town once a fortnight
These were long established, magistrate William
Hunt attending Devizes concerts regularly in the
mid-eighteenth century, and paying his 1 guinea
subscription to William Salmon in April 1741.°
Singing was widely practised among all classes.
The resurgence of music in England with the visits
of Handel, Haydn and Mozart and the composition
of ballads and operas by native and foreign
musicians provided a repertory of old and new
music. Provincial booksellers purveyed sheet music
and collections of ballads, anthems, country airs,
catches, glees and opera songs. Elizabeth Blackburn
noted that Richard Knight’s son, John, ‘like all the
family had a fine voice and a taste for music’® and
George Sloper remarked that cooper Thomas
Wheeler ‘was a very good and fine singer’.” At the
celebrations on Roundway Hill for the birth of
James Sutton’s heir in 1783, booths were erected for
glee singers” and songs and glees were sung after
the Bear Club annual dinner.’! Salisbury at this time
enjoyed a reputation as a centre of musical
excellence, with a music festival dating back to the

seventeenth century and stimulated by the presence
of Handel’s friend James Harris and of the
composer John Marsh between 1776 and 1783. One
of the most celebrated instrument makers in
England, Benjamin Banks (1727-1795) made copies
of Amati’s violins and Stradivari cellos.’”’ Concerts
were held in the city once a fortnight in winter and
once a month in summer, sometimes with foreign
soloists. Lawyer William Wroughton Salmon and
his wife attended the Music Festival there in
August 1818” anda Mrs Salmon, perhaps a relative,
performed regularly at concerts. Musical
accomplishments were becoming popular for girls.
An eighteenth-century writer claimed that music
had ‘the power of filling up agreeably those
intervals of time which too often hang heavily on
the hands of women’.”? James Sutton employed a
music teacher for his daughters,” and a music
master, Nathaniel Phillips, was a member of the
Devizes Mercers Company in 1760.” In local
schools music was part of the curriculum, so music
making was becoming a part of bourgeois domestic
life.

Music provided the background for the
elaborate ‘Pantheon’ or Temple of Arts staged in
Devizes by printer and stationer William Harrison
in 1821 after many years’ preparation, which was
later taken to Bath, Bristol and London. Displayed
in an ‘elegant and commodious portable building’
the exhibition featured sculptures, paintings,
lustres and ‘Mechanics’, with works by English,
Dutch and German artists, illuminated with wax
lights in chandeliers suspended from eagles. The
background music, specially selected from ‘British
and Foreign Masters’, including a ‘self-acting’
organ and a Musical Clock, was intended to ‘raise
the mind. . . upon the soaring wings of ecstasy’.
Claiming that there was nothing more interesting
than the study of the several arts and sciences,
which ‘promotes those alliances and connexions
which exist among men of science and learning’,
Harrison appealed for the patronage of ‘a liberal
and enlightened public’, who doubtless flocked to
such a dazzling collection of the arts under one roof,
‘a work differing in every respect from any which
has ever been offered to the world’.’”° Extravagant as
his claims were, Harrison must have counted on
middle class support for a venture which cost him
over £2,000 and gambled on the growing bourgeois
love of spectacle and appetite for the arts.

This general upsurge of interest in the arts was
reflected in the establishment of theatres. Aping the
London theatres, playhouses began to appear from

‘IN THE NEWEST MANNER’: SOCIAL LIFE IN LATE GEORGIAN DEVIZES 7

Fig. 1 The Town Hall, Devizes, built between 1806 and 1808, was designed by Thomas Baldwin of Bath. Its Assembly Room in
the Adam style provided an elegant venue for social events.

c. 1730 in Plymouth, Portsmouth, Reading, and
Salisbury, with dramatic companies making a
regular circuit of towns. Between 1760 and 1820 at
least 100 provincial theatres were erected and every
town of any pretence had one. In 1788 Mr Baker,
‘master of a company of comedians from Devizes’,
applied for a licence to perform in Salisbury,’* while
from that city came Shatford and Lee’s touring
company, playing a Spring season in a small theatre
in Monday Market Street, Devizes in 1790.
Performance of The Rivals by Sheridan three times
weekly ‘procured the patronage and respect of
many of the first families in the town and
neighbourhood’ .” Attendance was so encouraging
that a new theatre, costing £300* and ‘on a scale
equal to any County Theatre in the kingdom’,*' was
built in record time in 1792 by local builders,
Whichcord and Gamble, a circumstance ‘ doubtless
very pleasing to the numerous genteel residents in
that polite town and neighbourhood’. The first
performance in May included Don Juan, The Road
to Ruin, and various short farces. Subscriptions of

10 guineas entitled fifteen persons to free admission
every night ‘to a place of liberal and rational
amusement’ during the season for twelve years; no
doubt there was some competition to acquire such
distinction or to sponsor a performance. Attending
the theatre provided an arena for social life and the
diffusion of fashionable attitudes, as well as an
opportunity for personal display, particularly for
women. In a note to Mrs Stephen Hillman, Mrs
Spalding esteemed it a pleasure ‘ to join Mrs
Hillman’s party if she intends going to the Play
tonight ... Dr and Mrs Spalding mean to shew
themselves at the Theatre, if only for an hour’.**
Perhaps the same desire to be part of the haut
monde influenced guests at a_ glittering
entertainment on 2 August 1819 when William
Salmon staged an elegant féte champétre at Drew’s
Pond near Devizes. One of the guests, Irish poet
Tom Moore of Bromham, described the evening: ‘a
beautiful place, and everything gay and rant. . .a
boat on the little lake, musicians playing on the
island in the middle of it, tents pitched ’. Such

8 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

extravagant diversions were exceptional, but all
year round there were opportunities for fashionable
entertainment and civic conviviality. When
advocating the siting of the County Court in the
town in 1660, Wiltshire J.Ps had described Devizes
as ‘a town fitted for entertainment’.” Elections, the
Assizes or the two-month militia training periods
attracted gentry to the town, and became occasions
for social events, where town and country élite
could mingle. Perhaps influenced by the Bath social
scene, seasonal evening subscription assemblies for
cards, dancing and conversation provided an
opportunity for display and a respectable outlet for
women where the sexes could associate. In the
Assembly Room of the newly-completed Town
Hall, illuminated by ‘two magnificently beautiful
Grecian cut-glass chandeliers’ presented by Mrs
Sutton in 1808, a gathering of 315, including
‘fashionable society from Bath and Clifton’, danced
from 10 p.m. until 6 a.m. with ‘a grand supper
provided by a person of Bath’.*’ The following year,
‘a very grand Ball and supper’ were held — ‘where all
the beauty and fashion of the town and
neighbourhood met together — many ladies dressed
with diamonds and every other brilliant

ornament’.** In 1820, the Brabants, Hugheses,
Lockes and Tylees whiled the night hours away
with country dances until 1 a.m. and quadrilles
until three.®’ Less frenetic were William Halcomb’s
card assemblies at The Bear in his own Assembly
Rooms;”’ Thomas Gisborne noted the popularity of
evening card-playing in provincial towns.?! The
Venison Feast given by the County M.Ps in August
was another highlight of the social calendar. In 1790
M.Ps Henry Addington and Joshua Smith gave a
grand entertainment to the principal inhabitants:

to which the neighbouring gentlemen were also
invited .. .Amongst other elegancies there were three
turtles and 4 fat bucks. . .and the day was spent in the
utmost harmony. Many loyal and constitutional toasts
were given with repeated huzzas, amongst which ‘An
Honourable accommodation or a glorious war’ were
not forgotten. The Wiltshire band (one of the finest in
England) played martial music during the greatest
part of the day, and in the evening several hogsheads
of strong beer were given to the populace.”

Despite Edward Gibbon’s claim that ‘the little
civility of the neighbouring gentry’ gave him little
opportunity of dining,”*a great deal of entertaining

coach wing of Roundway House as the building 1s now called.

‘IN THE NEWEST MANNER’: SOCIAL LIFE IN LATE GEORGIAN DEVIZES 9)

went on among the higher ranks of town society.
The Corporation were regularly entertained to
dinner by the town’s two M.Ps at their country
houses and dining with friends seems to have been
a frequent occurrence. On 10 April 1819, Tom
Moore ‘dined at Salmon’s in the company of the
Phippses, Mr Pearce, Wyatt, Tylee etc. . . talked
among other things of the Bank question and the
Poor Laws’.** No doubt lawyer Wadham Locke
served for his guests the fish and oysters supplied to
him by John Mills of Cripplegate, London. ”
Wiltshire M.Ps Charles Garth, Ambrose Goddard
and Charles Penruddocke were frequent guests of
their sons’ godfather James Sutton. In a letter of
1800 to Mrs Sutton, Jane Estcourt referred to ‘your
charming circle at New Park’ and the following
autumn Eleanor Sutton wrote to her daughter that
she and her husband were ‘both impatient to begin
the New Park Nights Entertainment’.” At a dinner
party in 1773 guests, including the Gents, Gibbes
and Tylees, were served with carp, venison, veal,
partridge, crayfish and roast tongue.* Eleanor
Sutton’s recipe book included directions for
dressing fresh truffles, preserving pineapples and
asparagus, making lobster soup and presenting a
stag’s head.” The household accounts listed lavish
expenditure on claret, brandy, mussels, oysters, hock
and. champagne.'” At one intoxicating dinner
‘Brother Gibbes’ was ‘bereft of Speech’ and had to be
taken away at about 10 p.m., though Sutton wrote- ‘I
have not a symptom to tell me I had too much’.!”!
Feasting was a frequent occurrence for the élite.
Guests at the inauguration of Mayor William Waylen
in 1774 consumed considerable amounts of food, as
Table 4 indicates. The fare, supplied largely by local
butchers, bakers and grocers, cost £60 16s. 11 Yrd.!

Table 4. Fare at the Inaugural Mayoral Feast 1774

77 \bs of beef 2 venison pasties
2 quarters of lamb 7 pigeon pies

1 sturgeon 6 hams

5 turbots 4 geese

4 cods 36 fowls

4 sucking pigs 12 ducks

4 turkeys 20 tongues
truffles anchovies

tarts peaches, nectarines
cheesecakes rich cake

mince pies grapes, walnuts

lemon puddings
cider, madeira and wines

orange puddings
almond puddings

Source: W.A.N.H.S.L., W.C., Vol.2, p.172.

On 18 August 1784 baker George Sloper
attended James Sutton’s Mayoral Feast and the
Bear Club Feast two days later.'? Port, sherry,
brandy, rum, beer and porter flowed freely at Bear
Club dinners, and some glasses had to be replaced
in 1813.! The anniversary of the Glorious
Revolution was ‘kept as a great festival’, celebrated
by a dinner presided over by Henry Addington ,
and processions, bonfires and fireworks, and later ‘a
ball for the ladies’.!°

Such a day of general festivity was never remembered
in this town... although all ranks of people were
most heartily united in celebrating this glorious
. yet the utmost regularity and decorum
prevailed throughout the whole course of the day.!°°

event..

In 1789, George III’s recovery from illness was
celebrated with a procession led by a band, dinner
at The Bear, with loyal and constitutional toasts and
fireworks with ‘several elegant transparencies
emblematical of our beloved Sovereign’, followed
by supper and the obligatory hogsheads to the
populace,’ for whom such festivities offered light
relief from the drudgery of everyday life.
Throughout the war, victories such as the Battle of
the Nile were marked by feasting, gun volleys, ox-
roasting and fireworks. New Park and Southbroom
House were illuminated for Duncan’s victory at
Camperdown in October 1797, which occasioned
great rejoicing:

The Bells have scarce ceased ringing since Saturday
morning. The flags continue to be displayed and
everyone seems to be zealous in demonstration of
joy. The principal part of the Town is to be
illuminated this Evening and we are to meet at the
Hall to drink the health of the brave Tars who have so
eminently distinguished themselves.'

The Peace of Amiens was celebrated with
fireworks ‘by a person from London’ and in 1814,
an effigy of Napoleon , after being paraded through
the streets, was ceremonially hanged in the Market
Place, followed by the roasting of an ox and five fat
bucks, with ‘not a single instance of intemperance
or disorder’.!!°As well as providing occasions for
diversion, the practice of recording major events by
public ceremony stressed their significance in the
public mind and enhanced feelings of unity and
patriotism.

Convivial entertainment for some of the élite
was provided by Lodge 341 of the Freemasons,
inaugurated in 1788 and patronised by royalty.
Four meetings a month were held at The Crown, The

10 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

Elm Tree, The White Hart or The Black Swan, where
mason and innkeeper Walter Flay depicted masonic
emblems on his inn sign. Toasts, songs, glees and
duets enlivened the evenings. The Rector, the Rev.
Lediard, banker Charles Tylee and grocers John
and Stephen Neate were among the twenty-four
members in 1815. It seems likely that the Salmons
were also members, since their office clerk was
Secretary of the organisation.!!! The membership of
army officers stationed in the area had increased the
numbers by the following year!’ and in 1819 the
Lodge was visited by masons from Frome and the
East Indies.''* Freemasonry symbolised the
divergence of élite and popular culture in the
eighteenth century. Socially exclusive, it offered a
form of religious association and ceremony without
the dangers of religious enthusiasm or piety, and
was one of many associations linking the upper
class and ‘the middling sort’.

In sport, another élite activity was shooting,
reflecting the iate-eighteenth century revival of
interest in countryside pursuits, while seventeenth-
century wills had often referred to ‘my birding
piece’. A dozen of the leading inhabitants owning
land of over £100 a year held game certificates,
including banker Charles Tylee, whose drawing
room was adorned by two stuffed ducks in a case.'"
The increasing popularity of shooting, protected by
33 new Game Laws between 1760 and 1816, led to
the establishment of gunsmiths in Devizes. James
Sutton rode to hounds, in 1790 writing to his
brother-in-law ‘I was in full cry on Janice’.! Henry
Addington spent part of the sporting season at New
Park and both Sutton and Salmon employed
gamekeepers on their estates.!'!° Hunting and
shooting, associated with the upper ranks of society,
became the target of middle class emulation and
this trend was gently ridiculed in 1786 in a letter,
purporting to come from a grocer:

Hearing that every person that took out a licence to
shoot was to be a gentleman,I ventured to attempt
that character for one year, at a cost of £87 19s. 6d. 1”

The élite, however, pursued a wide range of
sports. Dr Robert Clare was described by Henry
Hunt as ‘a sporting man’''’ and New Park had a
bowling green.'!” Cricket matches were played by a
tradesman’s eleven against the neighbouring towns
of Calne, Marlborough and Westbury, the first
recorded match on Wiltshire soil taking place in
1774, though in 1783 the Westbury team was
censured for ‘conduct unworthy of true players’.'”°
Cricket, which had begun as a plebeian sport, was

taken up by the gentry after 1660, providing a
convenient opportunity for gambling. Although
sport was as yet largely local and devoid of
institutional structure, it was becoming spectator-
orientated and both publicans and gentry gave their
patronage to attract custom or to ensure social
harmony. Social distinctions were preserved , yet at
the same time a sport such as cricket was a means of
breaking down class barriers. Speaking of cricket, a
foreign visitor commented: ‘everyone plays it. . the
common people and also men of rank’.’”'The Rev.
John Skinner, too, noted servants playing alongside
clergy and gentry.'” Sport also enabled skilled
workers and artisans to acquire respectability and
distance themselves from the cruel and violent
amusements of the rabble.

Richard Warner spoke of ‘balls, plays and cards
usurping the place of ... rude athletical sports or
gross sensual amusements’ in Bath,'” but in the
Devizes area ‘the populace’ continued to enjoy their
traditional pastimes. Wrestling bouts, so popular in
the West Country, took place at Tan Hill fair, and
backsword contests, fought with heavy sticks,
including a match between Wiltshire and All
England in 1780, were staged on a dais opposite The
Bear for a purse of 5 guineas, ‘ the blood to run an
inch to entitle a man to a head, and the man that
breaks 2 heads to be allowed a tyer’!** Pugilism and
the cruder animal ‘sports’ were perhaps safety
valves for the aggressive and bloodthirsty instincts
of the masses. Bull baiting, legal until 1833, was still
being performed at Furzehill on the town’s
outskirts, where in April 1774 a fourteen-year old
boy killed himself drinking rum.'? Increasingly
after 1750, popular recreation for the masses
became divorced from church festivals and clerical
patronage; the commercial exploitation of leisure
penetrated the lower class market, with
entrepreneurs seeking profit from popular
spectacles. Fairs on the Green provided lively
entertainment, with rope dancers, conjurors, nine
pins, wild animals, raffles and wheels of fortune.'”°
Robert Southey asserted that ‘nothing is too absurd
to be believed by the people in this country —
anything in England will do for a show’.'”’ In 1790,
the credulous could see ‘The Amazing Pig of
Knowledge’ which could tell the day of the month
and the month of the year, guess which cards were
drawn and recognise the value of money.!** From
the 1760s, travelling circuses were all the rage .
Lions, tigers and a 9-foot tall elephant were the
attractions at Alkins’ Royal Menagerie which
visited the town in 1820.'” All these events

‘IN THE NEWEST MANNER’: SOCIAL LIFE IN LATE GEORGIAN DEVIZES 11

enlivened the monotony and strain of working class
lives, as well as providing occasions for courtship, a
loosening of social restraints and opportunities for
crime.

Reflecting the social mix and unequal income
distribution of the community, earthy sports and
boisterous pastimes flourished alongside the civic
rituals and more sophisticated tastes of wealthy
traders and _ professionals, accentuating the
polarisation between cosmopolitan and popular
culture. Public lighting aided socialising and towns
became ‘social amphitheatres for the rural and
urban élite’.!*? Withdrawing from participation in
traditional culture, they turned to the expanding
world of fashionable leisure and polite culture.
Increasing literacy and access to printed books were
widening men’s intellectual experience and
fostering the cult of travel, fashion and popular
science. The élite were redefining themselves in
cultural terms, conforming to a new set of values-
sociability, toleration and gentility — in contrast to
the rustic and sensual interests of the lower orders.
As John Trusler remarked in 1766 ‘Scarce a town of
any magnitude but has its Theatre Royal, its
concerts, its balls, its card parties’.!*! It might be
thought that only cathedral cities and large towns
had a way of life comparable to the urban
experience, but the lifestyle of the bourgeoisie
shows that Devizes, with a population of 4,747 in
1801, was by no means philistine or torpid in the
late eighteenth century. Although no Literary and
Scientific Institute was founded until 1833, interest
in these subjects was already widespread.
Merchants and shopkeepers, doctors, lawyers and
clergy were buying books, collecting pyints,
attending plays and concerts. Dr Brabant was a
friend of poets Tom Moore and Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, '” and goldsmith Bennet Swayne was the
first husband of the mother of Poet Laureate
Thomas Campbell. The range of book-buying,
musical activity and membership of philanthropic
and social clubs in Devizes indicate a receptiveness
to the new Enlightenment and the cultural
hegemony of the professional and élite classes. As
Byng wrote, ‘the turnpike roads of the kingdom...
have imported London manners’.'*

Undoubtedly influenced by visits to London
and Bath, and by newspaper descriptions of
fashions and activities in those cities, the Devizes
élite were involved in a range of active social and
cultural pursuits, from science to gardening, from
dancing to book-collecting and the expansion of
wealth led to a greater demand for organised leisure

activities. Nicolai Karamzin claimed that
‘newspapers and magazines were in everyone’s
hands in England’ and this greatly assisted the
dissemination of cultural ideas and the advertising
of social events such as assemblies and _ balls,
lectures and sporting contests. Georgian social and
public life now revolved round the town, rather
than the church. As a result of growing affluence,
the late eighteenth century saw the rise of a leisure
industry, organised on a commercial basis, catering
for the wealthy bourgeoisie; culture and sport
ceased to be the aristocracy’s preserve and became
middle class in character, bridging the divide
between aristocratic culture and bucolic peasant
pursuits. The wide availability of printed matter,
including woodcuts, engravings and music scores,
brought the arts within the range of people for
whom art and music had been unobtainable in the
seventeenth century. Culture became a commodity
to be bought and sold, and within the purchasing
power of ‘the middling sort’, who wished to emulate
the good taste and refinement of their social
superiors. Bourgeois horizons were widening and a
fashionable culture was developing, making
Devizes a social focus in its regional hinterland and
emphasising the difference between urban and
rural society.

J.J.Looney has claimed that gentry centres
experienced the commercialisation of leisure before
the industrial towns. Citing the examples of York
and Leeds, he has shown how the large number of
‘clubbable’ men, such as attorneys and doctors,
influenced the development of provincial culture.!*”
Until the 1820s, when improved transport made
London, spas and seaside resorts more viable and
attractive social venues, the town was the centre of
leisure life for the rural and urban gentry. In the
acquisition of taste, there was a large element of
social emulation, a desire to join the cultured set.
The British Magazine remarked in 1763 that:

the present rage of imitating the manners of high life
hath spread itself so far among the gentlefolks of
lower life that in a few years we shall probably have
no common folk at all!*°

Local antiquary Dr Davis satirised this social
pretentiousness and the quest for fashionable
elegance:

You have turn’d the grating of your woolcombs into
the scraping of Fiddles; the screeking loom into the
tinckling Harpsichord; and the Thumping Fulling
mills into the glittering and contentious Organ.

12 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

Scents of perfumes are in your churches and the
odours of train oil and fermenting Urine are no more
smelt amongst you. Your houses are ornamented with
Bath stone wrought into Pediments, entablatures and
Pillastrades; your market house(a stranger to
woolpacks,) is metamorphiz’d into a theatre for
Balls, and Concertos and Oratorio’s (sic). 1*7

Although Hannah More attributed the
contagion of dissipated manners to ‘a growing,
regular, systematic series of amusements’,'* the
permeation of society by polite manners and wider
cultural interests acted as a civilising and
integrating force, enhancing the urban image.
There was, too, an element of moral earnestness, a
belief that taste for the arts led to improvement and
refinement. The provincials were anxious to absorb
metropolitan culture and values and to ‘bring
Enlightenment to their own doorsteps’.'” In a fluid
society, manners and social habits mattered.
Devizes provided an elegant display environment
for the parading of wealth and refinement by social
and cultural activities, and, like other provincial
towns, became what one journal called ‘ the little
London’ of the part of the kingdom in which it was
situated.!"°

Notes

' “On the Utility, Choice and Use of Pleasures’: Oliver
Goldsmith and the Moonrakers (ed. ) G. Winchcombe
(1972), letter LX XXVIII, appendix, p. 85

° M. Little, ‘Samuel Fancourt 1678-1768; Dissenting
minister and pioneer librarian’, The Hatcher Review,
Vol. 2, no. 14 (Salisbury 1982), pp. 162-170

> Memotrs of the first Forty Five Years of the Life of Fames
Lackington (1791), p. 387

*T. Gisborne, An Inquiry into the Duties of Men in the Higher
Ranks and Middle Classes, (1794), pp. 6-7

> S(alisbury) F(ournal), 3871, 22 April 1811

° T. Gisborne, op. cit. , p. 471

’ Devizes) G(azette). , 390, 7 Aug. 1823

* Waltshire) A(rchaeological) and N(atural) H(istory)
S(ociety) LUibrary), Box 327, MS. 2602

° SF. , 5100 (sic), 3 Aug. 1801

10 SF , 3593, 22 April 1805; the work was written by a
Marlborough author in 1767

'' Letter of 6 May 1799: Elizabeth Cunnington, ‘The
Cunnington Family History’ (typescript study 1978),
p. 114

DG. 321, 28 Feb. 1822

3 DG, 389, 31 July 1823

"T. B. Smith, ‘The Early Life of Thomas Lawrence’,
WANHM , Vol. 9, (1865), p. 195

15 SF. , 3893, 23 Sept. 1811

'© The Book of Trades (3 vols. 1818; 1994 reprint, Devizes),
Vol. III, p. 12

” The earliest English subscription list dates from 1617;
by the eighteenth century there were over 2,000

'S Four Devizes seats were marked on the Andrews and
Dury Map of Wiltshire 1773, those of Edward Eyles,
Charles Garth, William Salmon and Willy Sutton

'° Wiltshire) and S(windon) R(ecord) O(ffice), 873/52,
Rules of the Devizes Book Society 1810. By 1821
there were c. 900 Book Clubs in England: P. Clark
and R. A. Houston, Cambridge Urban History (2000),
Vol. II, p. 597

°° WANHSL, S. C. 28, 113

“1 WAHHSL, W. T. 206, A Catalogue of the curious collection
of books chiefly relating to medals and antiquities of Dr.
James Davis 1771

”? This is the first known Devizes book publication

3 WANHSL, Box 328, MS. 2605, George Sloper’s diary

4 S(impsons) S(alisbury) G(azette), 40, 3 Oct. 1816

°> G(entleman’s. M(agazine) , Vol. LX XVII, (1807), part. 2,
p. 811

*6 Miller was Head Gardener of the Chelsea Physic Garden

7 Rey. A. C. Smith, ‘Memoir of Mr John Legge of Market
Lavington, Wilts’, WANHM, Vol. XXVIII (1895),
pp. 5-13

8 SF. , 3893, 23 Sept. 1811

”? DG. , 390, 7 Aug. 1823

* DG. , 731, 14 Jan. 1830

+R. Southey, Letters from England (1807), p. 115

*» Mrs Gent to James Sowerby, 17 Sept. 1810: WANHSL,
Box 63A, MS. 736

3 J. Sowerby, The Mineral Conchology of Great Britain (7
vols. 1812), Vol. 2, p. 101

++ A member of the Bath and West Society who lived near
Bath; later to be known as ‘The Father of English
Geology’

> William Wroughton Salmon to James Sowerby, 21 May
1810: WANHSL Box 63A, MS. 736

*© Elizabeth Blackburn’s Journal, 1810, in private
possession, Southampton

7 James Sutton to Henry Addington, 11 March 1788:
D(evon) R(ecord) O(ffice), Sidmouth Papers, 152M/
1788/F12. Sutton’s brother-in-law, Henry
Addington, M. P. for Devizes, was Speaker of the
House of Commons, and later Home Secretary and
Prime Minister. He was a frequent visitor to New
Park

* Sutton to Addington, 17 June 1791: DRO, Sidmouth
Papers 152M/1791/F3

* DG, 740, 18 March 1830

41 RSA Guard Book, Vol. 11, no. 21

*” RSA Guard Book, Vol. B, no. 37

*® RSA MS. Transactions 1779-1780, item 20

“ Bath City Record Office, Bath and West Archives I, IX,
Secretary’s accounts 1796-1811. This was the first
agricultural society outside London, with more than
500 members in 1805

‘IN THE NEWEST MANNER’: SOCIAL LIFE IN LATE GEORGIAN DEVIZES 13

* Bath City Record Office, Bath and West Archives,
Rules 1777, p. v

4© SF, 2793, 19 Dec. 1791

47 SF, 3582, 17 Dec. 1804

48 SF, 2742, 27 Dec. 1790

*” T. Davis, General View of the Agriculture of Wiltshire
(1794), p. 53

°° For Ingen Hausz, see N. and E. Beale, ‘Looking for Dr.
Ingen Hausz’, WANHM, Vol. 93 (2000), pp. 120-130

>! The Encyclopaedia Britannica was published in 1771

>» Quoted in M. L. Espinasse, “The Decline and Fall of
Restoration Science’, Past and Present, no. XIV,
(1958), p. 76

> T. Gisborne, An Enquiry into the Duties of Men, (1794), p.
416

+ DG. , 321, 28 Feb. 1822; B(ath) H(erald), 150, 10 Jan.
1795; SF. , 2933, 25 Aug. 1794

> WANHSL, Box 223, MS. 2497

°° Amelia Anstie to Samuel Anstie, 28 Jan. 1799:
Elizabeth Cunnington, “The Cunnington Family
History’ (typescript study 1978), p. 117. The orrery or
microcosm was a_ clockwork-driven model
planetarium devised by George Graham FRS (1673-
1751) and named in honour of Charles Boyle, 4th
Earl of Orrery (1676-1731)

7 SF. 2400, 7 June 1784

* The Ladies’ Library, (Sth edn. 1739), Vol. 1, p. 17

°°? W SRO, Cons. S. will 1687

° For more information on late eighteenth century music
in southern Enngland, see J. S$. Bromley, ‘Britain in
Europe in the Eighteenth Century’, History, Vol.
LXVI (1981), pp. 394-412; R. Dunhill, ‘Handel and
the Harris Circle’, Hampshire Papers, no. 8 (1985); B.
Robins, ‘Eighteenth Century Catch Clubs in
Salisbury and Southern England’, Hatcher Review,
Vol. V, no. 49, pp. 34-46

*! Benjamin Anstie to Samuel Anstie, 6 May 1799:
Elizabeth Cunnington, ‘The Cunnington Family
History’, p. 114

6 Amelia Anstie to Samuel Anstie, 29 Feb. 1804: ibid, p.
115

63 SF, 2793; 19 Dec. 1791

° DG. , 278, 26 April 1821

® DG. , 321, 28 Feb. 1822

6 SF. , 3893, 23 Sept. 1811

67 WSRO, 1553/68, William Hunt’s notebook 1726-1742

68 Elizabeth Blackburn’s journal

° WANHSL, Box 328, MS. 2605, George Sloper’s diary

7 J. Waylen, Chronicles of the Devizes (1839), p. 272

| The singing of catches and glees was given impetus in
the eighteenth century by the establishment in
London of the Nobleman and Gentleman’s Catch
Club in 1761, inspired by the revival of interest in
Elizabethan and Jacobean madrigals

”? A. Cooper, ‘Benjamin Banks, the Salisbury Violin
Maker’, The Hatcher Review, Vol. 3, no. 29, (1990), pp.
449-458

3 SF. 4252, 24 Aug. 1818

H. Chapone, Letters on Improvement of the Mind ,
Addressed to a Young Lady (177331818 edn. ) , p. 193

> G(loucestershire) R(ecord) O(ffice), D1571, F641,
James Sutton’s household accounts 1765-1791

7° WSRO, G20/6/1, Devizes Mercers Company records

7” WANHSL, c/4/7-8

78 SF. 2589, 21 Jan. 1788

” SF, 2703, 29 March 1790

8° C. B. Hogan, ‘The ms. of Winston’s Theatric Tourist’,
Theatre Notebook, Vol. 1, (1947), p. 89

81 $F, 2798, 23 Jan. 1792

a2 Sif, 2797/5 Loans 17.92

83 SF, 2814, 14 May 1792

WSRO, 1090/52/1-2, Stephen Hillman’s ledgers, Vol. 2,
insert note

> WANHSL, W. C. Vol. 6, p. 29

86 J. Waylen, “TheWilts County Court’, WANHM, Vol.
XXVII (1893), p. 116

*” WANHSL, Box 328, MS. 2605, George Sloper’s diary

88 Anon, A Genealogical Account of the Mayo and Elton
families of Wilts and Herefordshire (2nd edn. 1907), p.
164

8 DG. 223, 6 April 1820

° WANHSL, W. C. , Vol. 13, p. 258

*\'T. Gisborne, An Enquiry into the Duties of the Female Sex
(1797), p. 196

* WANHSL, c/3/100

* E. Gibbon, Autobiography and Correspondence, ed. A
Murray (1865), p. 62

* J. Russell (ed. ), Thomas Moore, Memoirs, Fournal and
Correspondence (1860), p. 197

® Billhead in Goddard scrapbook, Salisbury Museum

* Jane Estcourt to Eleanor Sutton, May 1800 : GRO,
D1571, F207

” Eleanor Sutton to daughter Eleanor, 17 Aug. 1800:
GRO, D1571, F349

°8 GRO, D1571, F655, entertainment book 1773-1811

°° GRO, D1571, F652, Eleanor Sutton’s recipe book

100 GRO, D1571, F641, Sutton’s household accounts 1765-
1791

101 James Sutton to Henry Addington, n. d. : DRO, 152M/
1792/F12

102 WANHSL, W. C. Vol 2, p. 172

03 WANHSL, Box 328, MS. 2605, George Sloper’s diary

104 W SRO, 1090/22, Bear Club dinner accounts 1809-1817

105 WAS, Box 328, MS. 2605, George Sloper’s diary

106 SF. 2631, 10 Nov. 1788

107 SF , 2649, 16 March 1789

108 William Salmon to Henry Addington, 17 Oct. 1797:
DRO, Sidmouth Papers 152M/1797/OZ29

109 WANHSL, Box 328, MS. 2605, George Sloper’s diary

0 North Wilts Herald, 3981, 15 Oct. 1937

11 SSG, 72, 15 May 1817

12 $SG, 1, 4 Jan. 1816

13 RH. Goldney, The Hisiory of Freemasonry in Wiltshire
(1880), pp. 155-156

4 DG. 390, 7 Aug. 1823.

115 James Sutton to Henry Addington, 7 Nov. 1790 : DRO

14 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

Sidmouth Papers 152M/c1790/OZ15

'l6 WSRO, A1/306, list of gamekeepers 1731-1941

"7 The County Magazine 1786-1788 (Salisbury 1788), 1786,
p. 31

"8 A. Hunt, Memoirs, (3 vols. 1820), Vol. 1, p. 399

"9 WANHSL, Box 328, MS. 2605,George Sloper’s diary

'20 Victoria) C(ounty) History): Wiltshire, Vol. 4 (ed. E.
Crittall, 1959), p. 377

"1 A Foreign View of England in the Reigns of George I and
George II; the letters of M. Cesar de Saussure to his
Family (ed. Mme. Van Muyden 1902), p. 295

"22H. Coombs and Rev. A. N. Bax(eds.), Fournal of a
Somerset Rector (1990), p. 15

3 R.. Warner, History of Bath (Bath 1801), p. 349

124. SF, 2679, 12 Oct. 1789

'5 WANHSL, Box 328, MS. 2605, George Sloper’s diary

6 WANHSL, W. T. 192, ‘Diary of Henry Crabb
Robinson’s Schooldays’, p. 5

7 R. Southey, op. cit. pp. 338-339

a SF. 273151 Oct, 1790

"9 DG. , 251, 19 Oct. 1820. Philip Astley established the
equestrian circus in 1770

'30 P Clark, English Country Towns 1500-1800 (1981), p. 2

51]. Trusler, The Way to be Rich and Respectable (1787), p. 5

'2 He treated Coleridge for his opium addiction and
Coleridge sent copies of his poems to Mrs Brabant

'33C. B. Andrews (ed. ), 7 Byng, The Torrington Diaries, (4
vols. ,1934-1938), Vol. 1, p. 6

4 N. Karamzin, Letters of a Russian Traveller 1789-1790,
trans. E Jonas (1957), Vol. III, p. 329

185 A. L. Beir, D. Cannadine and J. M. Rosenheim, The
First Modern Society (Cambridge 1989), pp. 492-496

'86 The British Magazine, Vol. IV (1763), p. 417

'57 J. Davis, Origines Divisianae (1755), p. 39

38 The Works of Hannah More (4 vols. , Dublin 1803), Vol.

4, p. 271

R. Porter, ‘Science, Provincial Culture and Public

Opinion in Enlightenment England’, British Journal

for Eighteenth Century Studies, Vol. 3, (1980), p. 26

0 The Annual Register for 1761 (1762), p. 207.

139

Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History Magazine, vol. 97 (2004), pp. 15-24

Trees of Marlborough College and Environs

by FJack Oliver

A complete list of the tree species, including hybrids and distinctive variants, recorded between 2001 and 2002 is
provided with indications of frequency, situation and spread. Exotics, semi-naturalised, and native species are
considered. In the last group, diseases (especially fungal) have changed the balance of dominant species. Girth records

are given from some exceptional trees.

It seems probable that Marlborough College and its immediate environs have 5 (or ?more) types of tree which have
greater girths than any similar trees elsewhere in Wiltshire. There are 2 likely British Champions; and also a Railway

Poplar which 1s the largest yet measured anywhere.

INTRODUCTION

Marlborough College was founded in 1843, and by
2003 the extent of its grounds covered 307 acres
(124 hectares). These grounds extend to the north-
west, west and south-west of Marlborough, but
there are also College properties with extensive
gardens along Hyde Lane, George Lane, and in the
High Street in the centre of Marlborough. The
concentrations of trees in this territory complement
those studied in Savernake Forest (and Tottenham
Park) to the SE of Marlborough (Oliver & Davies
2001; Oliver 2003). For instance, Willows, Poplars,
Yews and Ashes are a more important component of
the tree flora in this paper, than the Oaks and Sweet
Chestnuts of the previous two aforementioned
studies. To the south of the A4 road, the
Marlborough College Nature Reserve was
established in 1972. The Nature Trail covers many
different habitats including Ash woodlands,
Willow concentrations, trout ponds, the River
Kennet, wetlands and water meadows, semi-ancient
mixed woodland and chalk downland. To the north
of the A4, most trees (such as Cherries, both wild
and cultivated) fringe playing field areas on the
chalk, or have been planted in staff or College
House gardens. However there are also some small

copses, both wild and planted. The prehistoric
‘Mound’ contemporary with Silbury Hill, is
dominated by Yews, many of which started life as
miniature hedges long before the school was
founded. Exotic trees have been brought back by
staff and college ‘old boys’ following travels and
expeditions in the past, and introduced from
commercial dealers as part of special planting
schemes in more recent years.

VERY COMMON AND SELF-
PERPETUATING TREES

Of the large species, Ash (Fraxinus excelsior) and
Sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus) seed profusely and
grow into saplings wherever permitted. The third
commonest large tree, the only self-perpetuating
conifer, is the Yew (Jaxus baccata). Yews are
concentrated on “The Mound’ and around ‘The
Duelling Lawns’, but are to be found as seedlings
and saplings elsewhere within the grounds. Five
smaller tree species, more often than not shrubby,
seed ubiquitously where not controlled. These are
Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna, Wiltshire’s
commonest tree species); Hazel (Corylus avellana,

High View, Rhyls Lane, Lockeridge, Marlborough SN8 4ED

16 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

Salix alba (photograph by Joan Davis, 2002)

old coppice stools also common south of the A4
road); Holly (Ulex aquifolium, also forming dense
masses by layering); Elder (Sambucus nigra, which
even forms epiphytic plants on larger trees by bird-
sown seedlings); and Field Maple (Acer campestre, a
common fringe and boundary tree).

Most Willow species are confined to the
wetlands south of the A4. White Willow (Salix
alba) forms dense damp jungles, mainly by
layering rather than seeding. Over the last fifty
years, White Willows have been out-competing
the other common wetland willow, the Crack
Willow (Salix fragilis) because of disease in the
latter (see later subheading). The eleven other
wetland willow (Salix) species and hybrids listed
are all less common; but one willow/sallow species
is very common throughout the grounds, and
spreads by seed rather than (mainly) by layering.
This is the Goat Willow, also known as Grey
Sallow, or (for male trees) the Pussy willow (Salix
caprea). It is common in wooded areas, in wetlands,
and seeds readily in flowerbeds, edges and waste
places.

Continuing the very common species, Wild
Cherry (Gean, Mazzard, Prunus avium) seeds
occasionally and also spreads by root suckers. The
Wild Cherry is a conspicuous boundary feature
around some of the northern fields, and is in some
of the copses. The Silver Birch (Betula pendula)
seeds profusely, forming saplings in central and
peripheral areas of the College grounds. The last
two very common tree types, conspicuous because
of their great size, are Beech and Copper Beech
(Fagus sylvatica and F. sylvatica ‘Purpurea’). Most
were originally planted, but seedlings occasionally
survive to saplings where permitted.

FURTHER COMMON AND
CONSPICUOUS LARGE TREES

1. Conifers

Nos. 3 and 4, the ten types of Lawson’s Cypress
(Chamaecyparis lawsonia) are characteristic trees
near the central parts of the College grounds, and
near buildings. There is also one peripheral group
in a line south of the running track pavilion, (west
of the Preshute White Horse), which line acts as a
break to the prevailing winds. Many of the older
Lawson’s Cypresses have begun to layer, including
the yellow, blue and juvenile-foliaged cultivars.
There is a scatter of European Larches (Larix
decidua) throughout the grounds. The Larches at
the far west end of the Nature Trail have either
yellow or rich red-purple female ‘flowers’. Norway
Spruces (Christmas trees, Picea abies) are also
widely distributed, but with small concentrations
in the Nature Trail Beechwood to the south, and by
Field Cottage in Barton Dene to the north of the
A4. Scots Pines (Pinus sylvestris, pink upper trunks)
and the two subspecies of Black Pines (Pinus nigra,
grey trunks) fringe some margins and occur in some
copses, mainly to the north of the A4.

No other conifer types are both common and
conspicuous; and none (apart from Yew, see previous
section) were seen to produce successful seedlings.

2. Oaks

The only common mature Oak species is the
English Oak (Quercus robur), which is scattered
north and south of the A4, and mostly
peripherally, including northern and southern
boundaries and the Nature Trail to the south-west.
Natural seedlings and saplings occurred, but some
mature Q.robur trees were markedly afflicted by
oak dieback disease (see Tree Diseases sub-
heading).

3. Alders and Birches.

Common Alder (Alnus glutinosa) is common, but
confined to banks of the River Kennet and its
tributaries south of the A4 where seedlings and
saplings can be found. The only common,
conspicuous and self-perpetuating Birch apart from
Silver Birch (see previous section) is Downy Birch
(Betula pubescens, widely scattered with a few big
trees, and nearly as common as Silver Birch).

TREES OF MARLBOROUGH COLLEGE AND ENVIRONS 17

4. Willows and Poplars

The silky pubescence on the under-surface of the
leaves in the dense concentrations of large White
Willows along the River Kennet cause striking
scenic effects on sunny, breezy days, as the colour
switches from light green to silver, either in swathes
or en masse. The Crack Willows by contrast are
distinguishable from a distance by willow scab
disease browning and curling leaves and stunting
shoot ends. Some large Crack Willows still survive;
but compared with fifty years ago they are giving
way to White Willows in height and quantity (see
‘Diseases’ sub-heading). In some places, Osiers
(Salix viminalis) predominate.

Like the Goat Willows (see previous sub-
heading), the College Poplars (Populus species and
hybrids) are to be found scattered both north and
south of the A4, on dry or wet ground. Unlike the
Goat Willows, most or all were planted rather than
naturally occurring. Of the eleven types listed (nos
64-74), six are hybrids and five of these are complex
hybrids between N. American Black or Balsam
Poplars and the European Black Poplar (Populus
nigra). Many are large, but the greatest of all is just
outside the College boundaries, in George Lane (see
‘Special Trees’ sub-heading).

5. Limes and Horse Chestnuts

Three Limes (Linden) species and two hybrids are
to be found in the College grounds, but only one is
both large and common. This is the native
Common (Hybrid) Lime (Tilia x europea), whose
parents are the Small-leaved and Broad-leaved
Limes (T. cordata and T. platyphyllos). Tilia x europea
is the world’s tallest Lime, and Europe’s tallest
broad- leaf tree. The larger specimens, at 40m or so
high, would seem to make it the tallest type of the
many difference species, hybrids, and varieties of
tree within the college grounds. All the large
specimens have densely sprouting bases and masses
of trunk burrs and sprouts. Some also have suckers
from underground stems.

Although no masses of seedlings have been
noted beneath the College Hybrid Limes (as can be
found in Savernake Forest), these trees are
vegetatively invasive in the vicinity of their massive
bases and can be unpopular on account of the
honeydew which can sometimes cause the lower
leaves to become coated with black grimy mould in
late summer. Also the honeydew can cause pitting
of the shiny surfaces of parked cars. However this
honeydew drips on to the soil to provide nutrition

for nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria, which in turn
create usable nitrogen compounds for the tree.
There is in fact a complex four-way symbiosis, for
the aphids that create the honeydew also have
intracellular bacteria which help them use the Lime
sap more effectively to create proteins. This
complex symbiosis matches anything to be found in
the Amazonian rainforests.

Of the three types of Horse Chestnuts to be
found in the grounds, only one is large, common
and seen to produce occasional seedlings and
saplings by natural spread. This is the Common
Horse Chestnut or Conker tree (Aesculus
hippocastanum), now semi-naturalized in Britain
but originally from Greece and Albania. Large
conspicuous Horse Chestnuts flank each side of the
A4, but big specimens are also to be found
elsewhere in the grounds. Red Horse Chestnuts are
less common, and are discussed in the ‘Diseases’
section to follow. Sweet or Spanish Chestnuts
(Castanea sativa) are unrelated to Horse Chestnuts.
Most of the College grounds are either too chalky or
too waterlogged for these to thrive, but two medium-
large specimens grow on the Hyde Lane boundary.

ROSACEAE

At least 56 tree types, more than a quarter of the
total, come from this one family alone, out of the 28
tree families represented. Most Rosaceae trees are
small, but with clear single trunks to above Sft. The
paradox is that some large multi-stemmed shrubs
are far taller and more massive than the neat little
single-trunk Japanese Flowering Cherry trees
(Prunus nos 130 & 131). Examples of big shrubs
include Cherry Laurel (Prunus laurocerasus) and
Portugal Laurel (Prunus lusitanica) both of which
can reach 12m high. These are common in many
parts of the grounds as vigorously expanding
layering shrubberies, but occasionally produce
vertical trunks of about 1m in girth at 5ft above
ground level, meriting inclusion as trees in the
totals. Even Sloe (Blackthorn, Prunus spinosa),
usually a 1.5-2m high thorny thicket (as in the far
south-west of the Nature Trail), can sometimes
form a proper trunk of a tree 4.5m high. However
its hybrid with Plum (Prunus x fruticans) always
forms a more substantial, taller, thorny tree. The
Prunus genus alone supplies 25 tree types, with
Wild Cherry (Gean, Prunus avium, discussed
earlier) as the largest tree of the Rosaceae within the
College grounds, as well as one of the commonest.

18 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

The three genera Crataegus (Hawthorns,
Cockspurthorns), Malus (Apples), and Sorbus
(Rowans and Whitebeams) each provide seven or
eight tree types, and there are a further six Rosaceae
tree genera to be seen near College buildings.

This family is represented therefore by very
common native trees and shrubs (eg Hawthorn,
Sloe, Gean), by common semi-naturalized species
(eg Cherry and Portugal Laurels) and lastly by
individual old and new small-tree garden favourites
(eg Japanese Cherries, Purple-foliaged Asiatic
Apple hybrids, Quince (Cydonia), Medlar
(Mespilus) etc). Of the last group, only the beautiful
Double-flowered Pink Japanese Cherry (Prunus
‘Kanzan’) was common, conspicuous in spring
because of the dense massed pink blossoms.

DISEASES

1. Aesculus carnea (nos.149 ,150)

These Red Horse Chestnuts are susceptible to a
degenerative canker. Several College trees are
affected with the huge trunk ulcers, with raised
edges, up to 40cm in diameter. They are often
irregular, and can coalesce with adjacent ulcers.
Underneath the larger, older ulcers, the wood can
be crumbly. Grafted trees only have the canker
ulcers above the graft union. One such tree has
been recently felled. The cultivar ‘Briottii’ (no.
150) is so far unaffected, and could be a resistant
variety.

2. Quercus robur

Over the last three years, a severer form than hitherto
of Oak-Dieback Disease (ODBD) has afflicted
numbers of English Oaks. It is an incompletely
understood condition in which the organism
Phytophthora, normally present and harmless in the
soil becomes virulent and attacks the Oak roots.
ODBD is thought to be a multi-factorial illness,
with water levels and climatic conditions affecting
the type and pathogenicity of the soil Phytophthora;
however additional and unknown factors also
operate. Several Oaks, all Q.robur, in the Nature
Trail mixed-woodland have been affected and show
the characteristic ‘Stagshorn’ effect of some dead
branches in the crown. Occasionally part of a living
branch has the small, yellowing leaves and weak
shoots characteristic of a renewed attack of ODBD.
One Q.robur in the Nature Trail woodland has been
killed by ODBD, but most such Oaks of this species
co-exist with mild or occasionally moderately

severe relapses from the illness. The Durmast Oaks
(Q.petraea, no. 43), Hybrid Native Oaks (Q. x
rosacea, no. 45) and the other Oak species (see nos.
40-46) within the College grounds are not (or
hardly) affected by ODBD. This is exactly the same
pattern as occurs in Savernake Forest.

3. Ulmus species

Dutch Elm Disease (DED) is caused by the
synergistic (mutually enhancing) co-operation
between the vectors, two species of bark beetle
(Scolytus scolytus and S-.multistratus), and the
pathogenic fungus, Ophiostoma (or Ceratocystis)
novo-ulmi. In turn, the fungus itself can be killed by
‘d-factor’ strains. The d-factors are cytoplasmically
transmitted ‘virus-like’ pathogens of fungi,
mitochondrial double-stranded RNA elements.
Unfortunately the d-factors have not been infective
enough to eliminate the colonies of fungi spread
between Elm branches and trees by the highly
mobile beetles. As a consequence DED has spread
remorselessly.

No mature English Elms (Ulmus procera, no. 98)
survive anywhere within the College grounds, but
the residual root suckers are common and vigorous
along some hedgerows, boundaries, waste places
and wooded edges. Beetle galleries are to be seen
under the bark of dead and dying young trunks.
Mature but young Wych Elms (Ulmus glabra) often
survive to fruition in the grounds, but succumb to
DED before they reach their full size and girth. So
far, two smaller Wych Elm cultivars (“(Camperdown’
and ‘Lutescens’) are unaffected by DED. Along the
south-western boundary of the Cotton House
southern garden, a Hornbeam-leaved Elm (Ulmus
minor ssp carpinifolia, no. 97) survives as a largish
tree, with numbers of additional hedgerow suckers.
We thought it could be resistant to DED, but one
small upper branchlet seemed to show the sinister
yellowing of leaves in the summer of 2002.

4. Salix species, especially S. fragilis.

Two fungal diseases are often found together on the
same tree, and this is the case in some of the
Marlborough College Willows. These are willow
scab and black canker, caused by Pollacia saliciperda
and Glomerella miyabeana (Rose 1989, 2003).
Curled blackened shrivelled leaves in early or
midsummer lead to die-back of shoots, often
reducing in time potential Willow trees to scrubby
ugly shrubs. Of the willows listed between nos. 75
and 88, in order of severity the following four types
are attacked: Crack Willow, Corkscrew Willow,

TREES OF MARLBOROUGH COLLEGE AND ENVIRONS 19

Golden Willow and Weeping Willow. In
influencing the landscape, these two fungal species
have caused most devastation to the abundant and
once dominant riverside Crack Willows. Fifty
years ago, in the wetlands of the Marlborough
College Grounds south of the A4, searches were
necessary to find White Willows amongst the Crack
Willows. White Willows are now both abundant
and dominant. The occasional interspersed
scrubby or thin tree with many shrivelled leaves
and attenuated branches and shoots will nearly
always turn out to be Crack Willow.

5. Long Term Effects of the Diseases
In affecting the landscape, DED is the most

important disease. It may be many human
generations before Elms regain their former
importance as countryside mature trees — if ever.
There are many Willow and Sallow species and
hybrids. As susceptibility between these different
taxa varies so greatly, new dominant species and
types readily take over in the wetlands and
riverside which resist Willow Scab and Black
Canker. This is survival of the fittest, evolution in
action.

Over hundreds (or thousands) of years, ODBD
would seem to favour Durmast Oaks (Q.petraea)
and the Hybrid Native Oak (Q. x rosacea) over
English Oak (Q.robur).

LIST OF TREE SPECIES AND HYBRIDS

Key

Frequency (F column)

C. Common, likely to be seen in many parts of the
grounds.

O. Occasional.

R. Rare.

Situation (S column)

FE Fringes and/or staff gardens.

H. Used as hedging.

K. Near R. Kennet, ponds or wet areas.

L. Limited occurences.

Ginkgoaceae.
Araucariaceae.
Cupressaceae.

1.Ginkgo biloba Maidenhair Tree

2.Araucaria araucana Monkey Puzzle, Chile Pine
3.Chamaecyparis lawsoniana Lawsons Cypress

4. Chamaecyparis lawsoniana cvs. At least 9
distinctive cultivars of Lawson’s Cypress.

5. Chamaecyparis obtusa cvs. At least 2 distinctive
(mostly dwarfed) cultivars of Hinoki Cypress.
6.Chamaecyparis pisifera Sawara Cypress

N. New planting(s) of young tree(s).
W. Widespread

Natural Spread:- (NS column)

S. Seedlings and/or natural saplings noted locally.

SS. Seedlings and or natural saplings extensive, or
frequently seen.

V. Limited vegetative spread, suckering, layering etc.
VV. Extensive vegetative spread.

Pinaceae

7. X Cupressocyparis leylandu Leyland Cypress
8. X C_leylandii ‘Castlewellan’ Golden Leyland
9. Cupressus glabra ‘Pyramidalis’ Blue Arizona
Cypress.

10. Cupressus macrocarpa Monterey Cypress
11.Funiperus chinensis Chinese Juniper
12.7,recurva Drooping Juniper

13.Thuja plicata Western Red-cedar

14.Thuja cvs. Two or more dwarf cultivars of
Chinese and White Cedars.

15.Cedrus atlantica Atlantic (Atlas) Cedar
16.Cedrus deodara Deodar Cedar

17.Larix decidua European Larch

18.Picea abies Norway Spruce

19.Picea pungens Colorado Blue Spruce
20.Pinus nigra ssp laricio & ssp nigra Black Pine
21.Pinus radiata Monterey Pine

22.Pinus sylvestris Scots Pine

23.Pinus wallichiana Bhutan Pine

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20 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

24.Pseudotsuga menziesii Douglas Fir
Taxodiaceae 25.Cryptomeria japonica Japanese Red-cedar
26.Sequotiadendron giganteum Wellingtonia
27.Taxodium distichum Swamp Cypress
28.Metasequoia glyptostroboides Dawn Redwood
Taxaceae 29. Taxus baccata Yew
30. Taxus baccata cvs Golden & Columnar Yews
Magnoliaceae 31.Liriodendron tulipifera Tulip Tree
32.Liriodendron tulipifera ‘Aureomarginatum’
Variegated Tulip Tree
33.Magnolia Ait least 5 species, hybrids, & cvs
(some shrubby)
Lauraceae 34.Laurus nobilis Bay Laurel
Fagaceae 35.Castanea sativa Spanish Chestnut
36.Fagus sylvatica Beech
37.Fagus sylvatica ‘Purpurea’ Copper Beech
38.Fagus sylvatica cvs. At least 2 further Beech
cultivars.
39.Nothofagus obliqua Roble
40.Quercus cerris Turkey Oak
41.Quercus dentata Daimyo Oak
42.Quercus ilex Holm Oak
43. Quercus petraea Durmast Oak
44.Quercus robur English (Pendunculate) Oak
45.Quercus x rosacea Hybrid Native Oak
46.Quercus rubra (borealis) American Red Oak
Betulaceae 47.Alnus cordata Italian Alder
48.Alnus glutinosa Common Alder
49. Betula albo-sinensis Chinese Red-bark Birch
50.Betula x aurata Hybrid Native Birch
51.Betula jacquemontii Kashmir Beech
52.Betula nigra Black River Birch
53.Betula papyrifera Paper Birch
54.Betula pendula Silver Birch
55.Betula pendula cvs. At least 3 distinctive
Silver Birch cultivars
56.Betula pubescens Downy Birch
57.Betula utilis Himalayan Birch
58.Carpinus betulus Hornbeam
59.Corylus avellana Hazel
60.Corylus colurna Turkish Hazel
61.Corylus maxima (incl cvs & hybrids) Filbert
Juglandaceae 62.Juglans nigra Black Walnut
63.JFuglans regia Walnut
Salicaceae 64.Populus x canadensis Hybrid Black Poplar
65.Px canadensis ‘Regenerata’ Railway Poplar
66.Px canadensis ‘Serotina’ Black Italian Poplar
67.Px canescens Grey Poplar
68.Populus x jack Hybrid Balsam Poplar
69.Px jackii ‘Aurora’ Dawn Poplar
70.P. nigra ‘Italica’ Lombardy Poplar
71.P simonit Pekin Poplar
72.P. tacamahacca (balsamifera) Eastern Balsam
Poplar
73.P tremula Aspen
74.P. trichocarpa Western Balsam Poplar
75.Salix alba White Willow
76.S. alba ‘Britzensis’ Red Willow
77.8. alba var vitellina Golden Willow
78.Salix caprea Sallow; Goat or Pussy Willow
79.Salix cinerea ssp oleifolia Grey Willow

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TREES OF MARLBOROUGH COLLEGE AND ENVIRONS

Tamaricaceae
Tiliaceae

Ulmaceae

Aquifoliaceae

Ericaceae

Rosaceae

80.Salix daphnoides Lilac Willow

81.S.x dasyclados Silesian Willow

82.S. elaeagnos Olive Willow

83.S. fragilis Crack Willow

84.S. matsudana “Tortuosa’ Corkscrew Willow
85.S. purpurea Purple Willow

86.S.x rubens Hybrid Crack Willow

87.S.x sepulcralis Weeping Willow

88.S. viminalis Osier

89. Tamarix gallica Tamarisk

90.Tilia cordata Small-lvd Lime

91.Tilia x europea Common (Hybrid) Lime
92.Tilia henryana Henry’s Hupeh Lime
93.Toliveri Oliver’s Lime

94.T-x petiolaris European Silver Pendent Lime
95.Ulmus glabra Wych Elm

96.U.glabra cvs. Two or more Wych Elm cultivars
97.U.minor (carpinifolia) Smooth leaved Elm
98.Ulmus procera English Elm

99 Ilex aquifolium Holly

100Jlex aquifolium cvs & hybrids. At least 7 distinc-

tive variants of the species, & its hybrids with
Tlex perado.

101 Arbutus unedo Strawberry Tree
102.Rhododendron ponticum, hybrids & cvs
103.Amelanchier laevis (canadensis) Juneberry

104.Cotoneaster frigidus Himalayan Tree Cotoneaster

105.C.x waterert Hybrid Tree Cotoneaster

106. Crataegus laevigata Midland Hawthorn
107.Crataegus laevigata f. rosea Red Midland
Hawthorn. Also 2 or more cultivars
108.Crataegus monogyna Hawthorn
109.Crataegus monogyna f. rosea Red Hawthorn

110.Crataegus persimilis Broad-leaved Cockspurthorn
111.Crataegus sub-mollis Soft-leaved Cockspurthorn

112.Crataemespilus grandiflora Haw-Medlar
113.Cydonia oblonga Quince

114.Malus x purpurea Purple leaved hybrid Apple
115.Malus domestica Apple

116.Malus sylvestris Crabapple

117.M.tschonosku_ Pillar Apple

118.Malus hybrids & cvs At least 3 more hybrids
and cultivars of the 4 preceding Apples.
119.Mespilus germanica Medlar

120.Prunus avium Gean, Wild Cherry

121.Prunus cerasifera Cherry Plum

122.Prunus cerasifera vars nigra & pissardi

Pink & Pissard’s Cherry Plums

123.Prunus domestica Plum

124.Prunus dulcis Almond

125.Prunus x fruticans Hybrid Sloe-plum
126.Prunus laurocerasus Cherry Laurel
127.Prunus lusitanica Portugal Laurel

128.Prunus padus Bird Cherry

129.Prunus persica Peach

130.Prunus serrula, serrulata, speciosa, subhirtella,
and hybrids & cvs (Mainly Japanese) Ornamental
Cherries; at least 12 different types here.
131.Prunus serrulata ‘Kanzan’ Double-fld Pink
Japanese Cherry

132.Prunus spinosa Blackthorn, Sloe

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22 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

Fabaceae (Leguminosae)

Myrtaceae
Cornaceae
Celastraceae
Rhamnaceae
Hippocastanaceae

Aceraceae

Anacardicaceae

Oleaceae

Bignoniaceae
Caprifoliaceae

133.Pyrus communis Pear

134.Pyrus pyraster Wild Pear

135.Pyrus salicilifolia Willow-leaved Pear
136.Sorbus aria Whitebeam

137.Sorbus aucuparia Rowan

138.Sorbus cashmeriana Kashmir Rowan
139.Sorbus hupehensis Hupeh Rowan
140.Sorbus intermedia Swedish Whitebeam
141.cvs of (mainly) nos 136 & 137 preceding
Rowan & Whitebeam cultivars

142.Cercis siliquastrum Judah’s (Judas) tree
143. Sorbus sargentiana Sargent’s Rowan
144.Laburnum anagyroides Laburnum (incl. hybrids)
145.Eucalyptus gunnu Cider Gum

146.Cornus sanguinea Dogwood Tree
147.Euonynus europaeus Spindle
148.Rhamnus cathartica Buckthorn

149 Aesculus carnea Red Horse-Chestnut

150 Aesculus carnea ‘Briottii? Red Horse Chestnut
151 Aesculus hippocastanum Greek Horse Chestnut
152.Acer campestre Field Maple

153 Acer cappadocicum Coliseum Maple
154.Acer griseum Paperbark Maple

155 Acer negundo (incl cvs) Ash-leaved Maple
156.Acer palmatum (incl cvs) Japanese Maple
157 Acer platanoides Norway Maple

158 Acer platanoides cvs Red & Variegated
Norway Maples

159 Acer pseudoplatanus Sycamore

160.Acer pseudoplatanus ‘Simon Louis Frere’
Variegated Sycamore

161.Rhus typhina Stagshorn Sumach
162.Fraxinus angustifolia Narrowleaf Ash
163.Fraxinus excelsior Ash

164.Fraxinus ornus Manna Ash

165.Fraxinus oxycarpa Caucasian Ash
166.Ligustrum vulgare Waiid Privet
167.Ligustrum lucidum Chinese Glossy Privet Tree
168.Catalpa bignoides Indian Bean Tree
169.Sambucus nigra Elder

170.Viburnum lantana Wayfaring Tree
171.Viburnum opulus Guelder Rose

172.Other large Viburnum taxa & cvs

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SPECIAL TREES

Within the College grounds there are some
exceptional trees, most on account of their girths
(and/or ages) for the species in question; but one of
them is also interesting for its historical and
cultural associations. I have included here three
trees from two private gardens adjacent to College
boundaries. Unless stated otherwise, girths are
measured at Sft (1.5 metres) from ground level.

Salicaceae

A Crack Willow pollard overhanging the River
Kennet has equal (British) champion status with a
Malmesbury tree, with a girth of over 480 cms.
Unfortunately this tree is senescent and broken
with few healthy shoots, and may soon die. The
second largest Crack Willow (also a pollard) is near
the Science Block, and has a girth of 340 cm. Much
more impressive is the vigorous and healthy ‘Great
White Willow’ in the south-westernmost water

TREES OF MARLBOROUGH COLLEGE AND ENVIRONS 23

meadow. This has an ancient trunk, girth 550 cm,
which fell in the distant past, layered in several
places and formed a secondary vertical trunk 660
cm in girth at 3ft from the ground. As far as
comparisons are possible for this complex tree, it
would seem to be another national champion, and
is described fully elsewhere (Oliver 2002) Of three
other very large White Willows, one at the far SE
angle of the SE Trout Ponds has a_ basal
circumference of 505cm (at lft), and carries
colonies of epiphytic Intermediate Polypody
(Polypodium interjectum) with exceptionally long
fronds for any native fern of this genus.

Some of the College Poplars are large trees, and
one (Populus x canadensis ‘Serotina’) has a large
basal coppice, circumference (at lft), of over 6
metres. None compares with one just outside the
College boundary, by the River Kennet north of
Marlborough’s George Lane. This is a Railway
Poplar (Populus x canadensis ‘Regenerata’),
Marlborough’s biggest and tallest tree. The girth
here is 680cms, confirmed by the Tree Register of
the British Isles (TROBI) as the largest tree of its
kind ever recorded.

Fagaceae

The largest Oak (Q.robur) by the New Pavilion
north of the A4 and east. of the Kennels has a girth
of 462cm. Neither this tree, nor the American Red
Oaks (Q.rubra/borealis) nearby, come anywhere near
County girth records, but the New Pavilion English
Oak is a tall, stately tree for which there are old
historic photos. There is an impressively
symmetrical and attractive ‘Poplar Oak’ (Q.robur
‘Fastigiata’) in a private garden off Marlborough
High Street at the edge of College properties. This
cultivar of the English Oak has a girth of 280cm at
5ft (above seven branches), and 362cm at lft,
making it the largest of its kind in Wiltshire.

As with the Oaks, the fine large College
Common Beeches are surpassed by many
elsewhere in Wiltshire, especially in Savernake
Forest. However, for Copper Beeches, the story is
different; from girth measurements to date,
Marlborough College has five of the top ten largest
trees in Wiltshire, ranging from 350 to over 400cm
in girth. One of these in the Master’s Garden is
‘The Tennyson Beech’, under the shade of which
Alfred Lord Tennyson composed some of his most
famous works when visiting his nephew, a student
at Marlborough College. Its girth in 2001 was 373
cm.

Acer cappadocium (photograph by Foan Davis, 2002)

Aceraceae

The three Coliseum Maples (Acer cappadocium) in
the Master’s Garden and near the north bank of the
River Kennet are probably the three largest in
Wiltshire. The TROBI records place no 1778 (girth
265cm) as the Wilts County Champion; no 1751 is
actually larger, but low forking makes direct
comparisons difficult. All three trees are surrounded
by dense widespread masses of red shoots derived
from root suckers. North-east of Littlefield House,
the two largest of three large Norway Maples (Acer
platanoides) have girths of 339 and 320 cms. Old
TROBI records would indicate one larger Norway
Maple in Wiltshire, but I think this record was
erroneous, and the two largest Littlefield trees are
indeed the two largest Norway Maples in the county.
Many boundary and hedgerow Field Maples have
been coppiced or cut back over many years. One
such Field Maple near the gate of one of the water
meadows has a linear base which supports six trunks.
Its circumference at lft is 620cms; but as with some
other hedgerow Field Maples, it is hard to know
whether or not more than tree has coalesced. There
is a clear single-trunk Field Maple behind the
Preshute tennis courts Leylandii hedge. Its girth is
300cm, making it the second largest in the county.

24 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

Bignoniaceae

In the same garden as the Qrobur ‘Fastigiata’
discussed above, there is an Indian Bean Tree
(Catalpa bignonoides) with a girth of 316 cm in 2001.
There may once have been a larger Catalpa in
Wiltshire, but this one certainly comes next, and
may now be the largest in the County.

Other Large Girth Trees

The largest Limes, Horse Chestnuts, Ashes and
Yews within the College grounds, although
impressive, are not record trees compared with
some colossi and ancient specimens elsewhere in
Wiltshire. The three largest Common Hybrid
Limes were over 400cm in girth. The largest two
Common Horse Chestnuts were 420 and 473 cm,
and the largest Red Horse Chestnut was 310 cm.
Three Ashes were between 390 and 400cms, but
another with multiple trunks had a coppice base
circumference of 875 cm (at lft). The two biggest
yews were 383 and 385 cm. One Gean (Wild
Cherry) had a girth of 190 cm, but another was
270cm at 3ft (a low forker). Staff are proud of their
Swamp Cypress (Jaxodium distichum), girth 313 cm.
It is likely that some of the smaller tree species
approach record status. One Holly, for instance had
one of its trunks with a girth of 190cm, and another
Holly Tree had a basal measure of 405cms at lft.
The girths of five Prunus ‘Kanzam’ trees ranged from
130-143cm. A Pissard’s Plum (Prunus cerasifera
‘Pissardii’) had the exceptional girth of 150cm, the
second largest so far measured in Wiltshire.

SUMMARY

Comparison with the two previous papers (Oliver &
Davies 2001; Oliver 2003) shows that the
Marlborough College grounds carry more tree types
than Savernake Forest, Savernake Forest Arboretum
and the Tottenham Park Estate together, an area
more than ten times as great! Part of this is
accounted for by many small tree cultivars beloved
by English gardeners; but also by the species and
hybrids of Poplars and Willows in the College
ground wetlands, and by exotics planted by ex-
pupils and staff from foreign expeditions in the past
(and from specialist tree nurseries in recent years).

Total Tree Species (Shrubs excluded, but including
26 tree species sometimes or often shrubby): 133

Total Tree Hybrids (4 hybrids, sometimes or usually
shrubby): 24

Total Tree Taxa, including subspecies and
distinctive variants and cultivars but excluding the
smallest permanently dwarfed cultivars of larger
tree species): 207

Extensive natural spread: 23 species

Occasional natural spread: 18 species and 2
hybrids

Some of the Marlborough College areas, especially
near buildings and sports facilities and in staff
gardens, are closely manicured with intensive
gardening. In these places, natural regeneration of
trees is not going to occur, but some special and
exotic trees are valued. Numbers of these are
exceptional by virtue of age and size, and sometimes
rarity. Only following exigencies e.g. danger, new
buildings required etc. would they be removed.

In the wilder areas, peripheries, copses,
boundaries, wetlands and Nature Trail the trees can
find their natural population levels. Along with the
exotics, the wetland trees account for much of the
extra species diversity. Over the last fifty years,
especially over the last ten, fungal diseases have
changed the balance of the dominant Willow
species, favouring White Willow (but not some of
its cultivars).

Acknowledgements

My thanks to Joan Davies for preparing the
illustrations for this paper. Also to Sean Dempster,
Simon Eveleigh and Robert Tindall from
Marlborough College.

Bibliography

OLIVER, J.E. & DAVIES, J.M., 2001 ‘Savernake Forest
Oaks’. WANHM 94, 24-46.

OLIVER, J.E., 2002 ‘The Natural History of a White
Willow’. Botanical Society of the British Isles (BSBI)
News 91, 25,26 and 75 (illustrations).

OLIVER, J.E., 2003 ‘The Trees of Savernake Forest’.
WANHM 96, 40-46.

ROSE, D.R., 1989 & 2003 Scab & Black Canker of
Willow. Arboricultural Advisory & Information
Service, Alice Holt Research Station. Forestry
Commission.

Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History Magazine, vol. 97 (2004), pp. 25-34

Miss Etheldred Benett (1775-1845): A Preliminary
Note on her Correspondence

by R.F. Cleevely

Examination of this correspondence in various archives has provided further evidence of her own collecting, the
circumstances of her publication of the Catalogue of Wiltshire Fossils (1831), and her ciose relationship with other
geologists. In addition, it has yielded information about her interest in local village affairs, of events in the county, on
family matters and the changes in her own circumstances over the years.

A Memorial tablet on a wall in the Benett Chapel of
All Saints Parish Church, Norton Bavant reads:

In Memory of ETHELDRED second daughter of
Thomas Benett, Esq. of Pythouse, and Catherine his
Wife, who died January 11th 1845, Aged 69.

She had been 43 years an Inhabitant of the
Mansion House in this Parish of Norton Bavant.

Miss Benett was a daughter of Thomas Benett
(1729-1797) descendant of a family owning land
around Norton Bavant from the 15th century and
which also became closely associated with
Pythouse, near Tisbury. The family’s involvement
with Norton was limited after 1669, for the low-
lying Norton Manor House was considered too
damp and subsequently only occupied by un-
married sisters, one of whom was Etheldred Benett.
The parish church contains other monuments to
the Benetts in a side chapel and in the churchyard
(Watkin 1985).

That simple memorial inscription fails to
indicate that Etheldred Benett holds a significant
position in the history of British geology, in fact she

has been regarded as the ‘first lady geologist’.' Her
_ interest began in the early days of that science, at a
time when it was gradually realised that fossils
provided a useful method of understanding the
sequence and relationship of geological formations.
Consequently, her specimens, with the observations

and interpretations she had made during her field
work, played a significant part in this progress.’ For
some thirty years she devoted much of her leisure to
the collection of fossils near her home in Wiltshire,
or along the Dorset coast, where the family
habitually spent a summer holiday. It is thought
that she was encouraged by her brother-in-law,
Aylmer Bourke Lambert, who as a botanist and
antiquary was a member of all the major influential
scientific societies. Through him Miss Benett had
contact with the principal geologists of the time,
including authors of works on fossils. Until
recently, however, the only information about her
was contained in these books. In naming a
Cretaceous sponge after her,’ Gideon Mantell had
described her as, ‘A lady of great talent and
indefatigable research to whom I am under infinite
obligations for many valuable communications on
scientific subjects’. In their Mineral Conchology, the
Sowerbys make forty-one acknowledgements of
specimens received from her, many of them being
either unique, or else the finest available at the
time. When naming ‘Ammonites benettianus’ after
her, (Min. Conchology, 6:77, pl, 539) they recorded,
‘we are indebted to the zeal of Miss Etheldred
Benett whose labours in the pursuit of geological
information have been as useful as they have been
incessant’. Her major contribution to this principal
fossil reference work was also acknowledged by Sir

‘High Croft’, Gunswell Lane, South Molton EX36 4DH

26 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

Roderick Murchison in his Presidential address to
the Geological Society, when he reported her own
publication (Murchison, 1832:373). In an obituary’
Mantell recorded:

For more than a quarter of a century Miss Benett,
pursued with ardour and success the investigation
and collection of the organic remains of her native
county; contributing also by her pencil and pen, to
the illustration of the geology of Wiltshire. To her
zeal and talents, and the liberal encouragement she
gave the local collectors, we are in a great measure
indebted for our knowledge of the fossils of the chalk
and green sand of Wiltshire, and more particularly of
those in the neighbourhood of Warminster and
Tisbury.

Ultimately, persuaded by her brother John
Benett, she produced a ‘Catalogue of Wiltshire
Fossils’ as part of The Modern History of South
Wiltshire, that listed their occurrence. Her
involvement in this publication is first mentioned
in a letter to Mantell on 23 March 1818 in which she
explained the circumstances and mentioned all
those engaged in producing this ‘Picnic’ history of
the county. Her various geological friends had
encouraged her to undertake the geological section
and with their assistance and her own ‘pretty
extensive collection’ she had agreed — exclaiming,
‘So there you see, I am fairly in for it!’ Even this
early, she intended that the ‘Geology’ would also be
published as a separate study from the whole
county history. In a letter to Mantell on 4 July 1831,
Miss Benet declared, ‘I am much flattered by the
favorable opinion which you express of my little
book,’ despite the errors made in printing that she
had had to correct by pen herself. The detailed list
of fossils fills nine pages and there are three plates
of the better and more curious specimens. The
author uses two letters, the first dated 25 April 1831
as an Introduction, the second dated | January 1831
as a Preface. In the second, written to Sir Richard
Colt Hoare, the editor, she gave a general account of
the geological formations that had been recognised
in the county and her observations on their
relationship to those elsewhere in England. For
each formation she listed the localities and
provided a gazetteer of the fossiliferous exposures
available at that period at Warminster, Heytesbury,
Tisbury, Bradford and elsewhere. Of particular note
was the famous site at Chute Farm, near Longleat,
of a field called Brimsgrove that William
Cunnington described, ‘as if a cabinet had been
emptied of its contents, so numerous, and so

various were the Organic Remains that could be
found there’.

Unmarried, as a young woman she had both the
time and resources to participate in the developing
science of geology and adopt William Smith’s
stratigraphical principles when collecting.° The
Lower Cretaceous sedimentary rocks of Southern
England are variable in occurrence, lithology and
palaeontology, but through the fossils that they
collected and exchanged, Mantell, Miss Benett and
others gradually reached a mutual interpretation of
the relationship of the exposures that existed in
their own neighbourhoods, close to modern
understanding. In most years she endeavoured to
spend a month or so in London — ‘as it is the only
jaunt of pleasure I have in the year’ (4 June 1822);
but during the Autumn stayed at Weymouth,
‘where I cannot help collecting the fine fossils . . .
though I have had such quantities of them... (11
Dec. 1831). On one occasion, rejecting Mantell’s
suggestion to visit Portland she commented (2
November 1835):

A lady going into the quarries is a signal for the men
begging money for beer, and the few times I have
been there I never got a specimens worth bringing
home. All my Portland fossils have been purchased in
Weymouth!

Later, she had far less time available for she wrote
on 27 February 1833: ‘I am one of the working Bees
in our family Hive’, and for the last twenty years of
her life was often incapacitated by illness, when, ‘. .
. I was not equal to the fatigue of searching for [the
fossils] myself’? (12 Apr. 1824). She was always
prepared to pay a reasonable price for specimens
and had also employed collectors to work on her
behalf; locally there was John Baker’ — mentioned
as her ‘best collector’, or ‘my man at Warminster’.
She also employed several others at Tisbury, and
local residents in Dorset, for there are references to
‘my man at Weymouth’ and ‘my collector at
Christchurch’ [ possibly Miss Beminster, who also
sent many specimens to the Sowerbys].°

Miss Benett’s collection was of some
consequence in her own time, given both its size
and diversity, and its value in clarifying the
occurrence of particular fossils. One result was that
there were frequent visitors to her home at Norton
Bavant, who arrived by the Bath to Salisbury coach.
She informed Mantell in August 1838:

there are one or two Coaches pass this House daily
between 10 and 11 o’clock .. . and we frequently meet

MISS ETHELDRED BENETT (1775-1845): HER CORRESPONDENCE 27

friends at the end of our road, being of course
previously appraised of the day of their coming.

Many of her specimens are important since they
were among the first to be illustrated and described,
while a few are unique through their scarcity or
special preservation.’ Some of these were donated to
various British museums and organisations, others
were sent to the Sowerbys, but her main collection
is now in the Academy of Natural Sciences in
Philadelphia, after being purchased in the late
1840s. In recent years, both Sarah Nash (1990) in
this journal, and Hugh Torrens with numerous
American colleagues (1989, 2000), have discussed
her fossil collection, the former providing a map of
Wiltshire localities and the latter detailing its
‘rediscovery’ in Philadelphia. It is also apparent
from her correspondence that she collected shells,
and was equally familiar with the literature on
conchology. Writing to Mantell on 17 May 1817
Miss Benett confessed that she had been so busy
with her shells that she had not been able to pay any
attention to his fossils. In another to J. De Carle
Sowerby on 10 September 1825 she reported:

I have lately been arranging my British Shells. . .I
have discovered a quantity of fresh-water shells in
this village, which I had no idea we possessed until
now. The species which I have met with are: Helix
palustris, planorbis, spirorbis and vortex — the specimens
tolerably plentiful; Helix alba, contorta and hispida —
very scarce; a few Bulla fontanalis; H. stagnalis
plentiful in a village near us . . . Helix annularis 1s also
found with H. stagnalis.

The rest of that page and all the last were devoted to
other shells that she could not identify and ends, ‘I
have though more of the subject than of the writing
I see in this letter’.

Several of the species listed would appear to be
new records for this square ST94 under the national
mapping scheme.” Another letter (23 October
1826) to the shell dealer G.B. Sowerby (the Ist) in
response to an offer he made at the time he
published The Genera of Shells, to sell representative
lots of these to collectors at £5 each, gives some idea
of her gradual decline:

I am very sorry that your letter of the 2nd of
September should have remained so _ long
unanswered, but owing to your omitting Norton on
the direction it was sometime before it reached me;
and I have long been such an Invalid that writing
many letters has been an exertion more than I was
equal to. I believe you are not aware that I remained

in London till nearly the end of August. I was
detained the last two months by severe illness which
has left me so low in purse, as well as in health, that I
regret to say that I cannot with prudence become a
subscriber to your proposed scheme, although ten
pounds worth of shells would have been a brilliant
addition to my collection. I am the more sorry that
the success of your plan is so necessary as the little
assistance I might have afforded you is so
inconvenient to me just now. I hope you have met
with many others who are both able and willing to
assist you in your plan.

Fortunately, much of her correspondence with
Mantell has survived and is preserved in the
Alexander Turnbull Library, in Wellington, New
Zealand. A few other letters to the Sowerbys, and
several to S.P. Woodward, the Norfolk naturalist
with whom she exchanged specimens, are held by
institutions in the U.K.

Examination of this material has provided
further background to her collecting methods and
relationships with her other contemporaries
(Cleevely 1998a, 1998b). These letters reveal that
her practical knowledge of geological formations
and their fossils enabled her to participate in
resolving problems of correlation between differing
sedimentary rock-types. This experience also
ensured that she was not deceived on the source of
the fossils that were acquired. The letters also
contain references to other facets of her life, social
background and family incidents, all of which
colour existing accounts of her life and reflect the
history and attitudes of that period.

Family matters and illnesses often prevented
Miss Benett from pursuing her collecting and
forced her to give up geology for long periods. She
explained this as being the cause of a long lapse in
her correspondence with Mantell on 12 April 1825,
and the vexation and annoyance at being deprived
of her great amusement in pursuing the subject. As
evidence she mentioned:

I need only inform you that with my house full of
fossils in confusion, a fine set of cabinets which I
purchased last year still remains empty, and that
having had Professor Buckland’s Book from the
moment it was published, I was forced to
acknowledge to him the other day, that I had not yet
read it!”!!

In 1818, her brother John Benett (1773-1852),
who lived at Pythouse near Tisbury, contested an
election for Wiltshire against the current MP Mr.

THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE
FE . ° : .
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wh: oon. Vond ceen Vorme Jie Witten Cialh Iipule ppbilly
ote Ae bola, lire Jovi tA torr, Uf 00 an Baer Te. hdvwntipe
/ Vitraffre he Ber sth GB [ge “ye

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Yee belong Zs thie in imap gpirirn) ery OBrwk. (bate, nbd Vtonot=
ites: wot. tre Th vefrerAten Ptr xf yor, iE A PIP
ponlopy bite Vie. Irflese tod Dis. Webbe. Bifpite, Phgoarit fom
the vaterbte Works xf Le arhinerr why pronto oft Ts Fone
ee ese ze Mfphile. EPS OE Piet A tf Hix ts (ob pte, Vas
Ate Vert, whhace Aoalo aves. 2, arid Sted jnIce fro $20 Yoko

Miss Benett’s first letter to Gideon Mantell (15 Fuly 1813) in reply to his request to exchange information and specimens

Wellesley.'* He was successful and served as the mentioned in her letters and that of 15 September
M.P. from 19 July 1819 until 3 Dec. 1832; in a 1818 conveyed something of the trauma of the first

subsequent election he became the M.P. for South campaign:
Wilts., serving from 17 December 1832 uatil 1 Jul
tig enh Ta ON nee: oe Cay A contested election sets even Geology at defiance,
1852, a few months before his death that year on 1 hea
and a Brother’s life at stake, you may well suppose

October. Inevitably, these family affairs were

rendered the scene much too interesting for me to
think with effect on any other subject. Our opponent
finding honorable means were of no avail against the
Man, who was really the choice of the County, stuck
at nothing, however dishonorable, to attain his end.
He has carried his Election, but by means which has
made him detested by all the respectable part of the
County. By bribery and corruption of every kind he
raised a Mob against us, and the mischief he has done
by the demoralization of the lower classes is most
deplorable and will be dreadfully felt for years. My
Brother’s life was preserved through the Election by
means most honorable to him, most gratifying to all
his family. — The Yeomen of the County . . . seeing
from the highest to the
lowest gave up all their own concerns for the whole
time the Election lasted and at the risk of much
personal danger, expence and inconvenience, kept up

the urgency of the case,

a spontaneous Guard of from four hundred to six
hundred daily, and without whom my Brother could
not move but at the risk of his life, so dreadfully had
Mr. Wellesley poisoned the minds of the lower classes
against the Man whose conduct they had all been eye
witnesses for more than 20 years. A most striking
proof how far Beer and falsehood will go with
ignorant People. — Ours however is the Triumph,
and I trust that a time will come when Mr Wellesley
will find that the County of Wilts. is not to be carried
a second time by bribery, falsehood and intimidation,
nor would it now if we had been aware that such
dishonourable means would have been used against
us, but Mr Wellesley was deep in electioneering, it
was my Brother’s first attempt, and as there had not
been a contest in Wiltshire for 46 years, no one
suspected such conduct therefore [and] could not
guard against it."

Occasionally village affairs were mentioned and

on 22 May 1837 she was preoccupied with what was
an important local matter:

We have lost our poor old Vicar and the living being
very small, the Property my Brothers, but he no ways
interested in the Tithes as it is an endowed Vicarage;
Ourselves having resided here thirty five years and
being the only resident Gentleman’s family, we sent
the strongest memorial which we could pen to the
Lord Chancellor requesting him to present a
Neighbouring Curate, who was eminently qualified
for the situation. Under the circumstances which we
detailed to his Lordship we thought it almost
impossible that he could have rejected our Petition.
He has done so however and has given it to the
Archdeacon of Barbados, who has been twelve years

MISS ETHELDRED BENETT (1775-1845): HER CORRESPONDENCE 29

in the West Indies and is returning broken in health
wanting a quiet cure and little to do when no place in
the Kingdom requires an active Pastor more than
this Village does at the present time; the Archdeacon
is not yet arrived and in the mean time the place has
only a young Curate who of course can do nothing
more than the regular service of the Church and in
this state the parish has been these three Months. We
are told that the Archdeacon is a good man and he
may be so, but of course he can know nothing of the
concerns of a country Village in England and it is
hard to have such an utter Stranger poked close to
our Noses for the rest of our lives; his way into the
Village is by our door and our gardens — join only the
fence between them, when we have a Clergyman at
hand who is known, beloved and respected by all the
lower Classes as well as the higher wherever he has
been. This business distresses us sadly, but the
Chancellor has the power and has used it, in spite of
our solicitations.

August seems to have always been a particularly

eventful month in the village, for the following year
she provided some background to the rebuilding of
the church. Presumably, since the family were
involved they had reconciled their views on the new
appointment. In a letter 10 August 1838 she had to
apologise to Mantell for not despatching specimens

as:

My mind has been occupied, I may say entirely
engrossed, by one subject the last three or four
Months at the least; the pulling down and re-
building of our Parish Church, a work in which there
is always many difficulties to encounter; and as this
Place has been our family residence for more than
400 years, and the old Church contained the remains
of our Ancestors for that period we know; and we
mean to lie there ourselves, it is a work of more than
common interest to us; Parish Committees are
naturally for doing things at the least possible
expence to themselves, while we as naturally wished
it well done: our Property here is only a life interest
in a huge old House to be kept in habitable repair,
and about five Acres round it; but knowing our
anxiety about it they would have let the Church fall
on our heads, as it would very soon have done, if we
had not bought every step we have gone in the
business; and have driven it out so late that we laid
the first stone only on the 31st July — but it is laid,
and late as it is, we hope to cover in by the end of
October. — We geologists know the value of good
Materials and I decided on Tisbury Portland Stone,
which has been a great difficulty, on account of

30 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

carriage 12 or 13 Miles, but here we have only Chalk
and Barr Stone, neither of which suited our ideas for
durability; their Architects always estimate too low,
and no one would take the Contracts at his Prices,
however we have surmounted it all and are at work,
but there are still many exertions about it which keep
me in a worry. You are such an anxious minded
Person yourself that you will perfectly understand
my feelings on the business; had I my old good health
and nerves I would gladly have taken the
responsibilities on myself to have had the power of
beginning two Months earlier.

In a pamphlet on Norton Bavant, Watkin (1985)
recorded that this work in a ‘vaguely Perpendicular
style’ was completed by William Walker of
Shaftesbury in 1840; further work was carried out
in 1863 and the tower was finally restored in 1894.

Other letters between 1829 and 1838 to the
Norfolk geologist Samuel Woodward, resulting
from their mutual exchange of fossil specimens,
mentioned her interest in collecting seals, for
several refer to their despatch and receipt. This had
also been indicated earlier in a letter to Mantel! on
20 October 1816, in which Miss Benett thanked
him for the explanation of his own fine seal and told
him that the one she was using herself was that of
the first Duke of Richmond & Aubigny according
to ‘a clever Herald and antiquary’.

In common with other families during the 19th
century, the Woodwards endeavoured to gather
portraits, particularly the fashionable silhouettes,
of their friends and acquaintances. In fact, it is
solely through this pursuit that there is a likeness of
Miss Benett. This is first mentioned in a letter of 6
May 1834 when Miss Benett promised : ‘I will get a
sketch of myself when I have an opportunity’. On
22 Nov. 1835, she wrote:

I have not had any opportunity of having my shade

taken and if I ever should get it, I fear, it will only
disappoint you, as I have no profile, having no
prominent feature.

Finally, she was able to send it and wrote on 15
May 1837:

I was going to Bath ...and had... determined to
have a Profile of myself taken, if I could get it done.

I walk’d one day to find a person . . . till I was ready to
drop with fatigue. .. . I only succeeded about an hour
before I left Bath, and such as he has made me in a
Bonnet Cap and velvet Spencer, you have me; or
rather I should say, you have me not, for I do not
think it will give you the least idea of me!; the dress I

A silhouette of Miss Etheldred Benett. The only known
likeness of her produced for Samuel Woodward in 1837

am never seen in but in my Pony Carriage and it
makes me look at least ten years older than I am; I
could not alter my dress when IJ found the Man, for I
had not a moment to spare.

That profile has featured in every account of Miss
Benett, since it was used by H.B. Woodward for his
history of British geology.

An indication of her wider concerns was
provided in another letter to Mantell on 22 March
1841 that mentioned a difficulty she had
encountered arising from growing national concern
over conditions in various industries, and the
passing of an early Chimney Sweeps Bill intended
to reduce the use of children. Miss Benett grumbled
about this:

That stupid Chimney Sweeping Bill engrosses the
attention of us Inhabitants of old Houses in the
Country at present, I am certain no Machine can
clean a Chimney where wood is burnt, for it must be
scraped and no machine can possibly pull down Jack
Daw’s Nests, with which the Chimnies [sic] of
Country Houses are so frequently filled; we are
obliged to keep copper wire Nets, and strong ones
too, over the tops of our Chimnies at all times to
prevent it; fix’d on as fast as possible, and the

MISS ETHELDRED BENETT (1775-1845): HER CORRESPONDENCE 31

Chimnies so high as to make it dangerous at all times
to get to the top for necessary repairs even. Our only
two sitting rooms and the best spare bedroom are
supposed to be impracticable to a machine; the
Chimnies are in the principal Walls of the House, and
the House 200 years old this year; so a pretty prospect
we have of shaking it all to pieces, to say nothing of
the expence and inconvenience if we should have to
change the direction of the Chimnies. I hear that
Lord Heytesbury, who enlarged and new fitted up his
House at a great expence and five years ago, is now
obliged to pull to pieces two of the sitting rooms and
one other at a very considerable expence from this
cause.

A letter of 12 September 1841 to her brother-in-
law, A.B. Lambert (1761-1842) reflects her wide
interests and views:

We have told our clerical friends of the wants of the
New Zealand Church, but clergymen are scarce in
this Neighbourhood. I have the fossil you speak of for

Pity thre fox

Goer brn Mec yollaCd ee fetce_%
gee “ZG a fler_ Gig actual, J tong Yrs

prccel Po fe fette 1 lal UfOW Of Yoru

pee peat fie: Goel. ( epriain Pita pee fOr Fee

pu base Lea Zé 4 Pr wl .

DLL Anowledlye Uff Yerrcare tnt Yj
be virefalls emplaze J Ye tactile
sonun obentiane trteley Pa Vat fporvise pretl

fjudeed Pit Paconenegerp Ole
QALLE, 2;

LEV T

yp dent wrth To neler
Ss A Va~ LPL
pes yrerrey Joe

inypeby yor Tire relied Leflore J Cnrea bee

BROT arn Tie ee
<< Gent. La Nod: yz.

Dr. Mantell sent it to me many years ago from Tilgate
Forest, a small specimen too, which is much more
valuable to me than a large one. He gave a very fine
large one to the British Museum, which I have seen
there. Thanks for your account of it. Thanks also for
mentioning the Shells, but you know they are things
one could not purchase without seeing them, and
perhaps I may have half of them already, which even
if cheap would bring those I wanted dear, as a Lady
would get nothing for her duplicates. I pick up a few
here and there and so get on with them; I start on a
‘frisk’ in my Pony carriage tomorrow with the
intention of going as far as Southampton for a couple
of days, if not stopp’d by the forest flies on the way;
but I have a horror of them, they make horses almost
frantic, and if I should get so far, shall probably get a
few shells there, at least I did so last time. The
brilliancy of the gardens is now on the decline but
they are still gay and while the present sunshine lasts
the flowers will perk up their heads, but the heavy
rains will spoil most of them; the Yucca filamentosa is

pfu Ae toc fe world fee abou ip fe
) Huth feat Uf Fem Shot tg tot na Joney
spictabrlyy few Th toni» Khe ser Vier, privec
who gael Pe oe STIR or pee Mead, Chee bree
not four cl wm flac. neyular worfed 72 ;
tut Vhey Arvo wher. Zo Hes yor titern, end donnie
onty po vo when. pied fe AST Be Gloet lie vale
of Phe; where I have yt tite npfoheFeer te
Wierd 3 wm wr WLecd Sf yr Gil. free _
Bae ay pir ree wnPae ered wrafes
Jon He wlonBencG pom ILO Soa ann

eee a say

Bpbclnedt Whereas f1a Peiclibrecl 0 aba
b tyork pekidirge a
“Wy Vo) SAA. ke
ns ae, 7 = 5 x
Box tn etre Villy ferr dteyppoip #0
Lage eh JS ce-fain Aone. Se
Po meet yor ole Beer tir Wie brit Wyiceh
he. far eHrred ficem. —— :

Letter to Mantell (14 November 1842) that comments on his mis-spelling of her Christian name

32 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

blowing splendidly opposite our windows. Iam glad
you have got a Lodging to suit you but I should not
like residing at an inn, even with a view of the Royal
Gardens from my Windows. It seems by your account
of it that you must have got the Ball Room. Take care
that they don’t kick up a bobbery some day when you
are out of it and you on your return find them all a
dancing and a dancing. Now good night, with our
kind remembrances.

From later letters, it would seem that Miss
Benett was rather frail, despite her earlier energetic
collecting activities, for she was often ill and
affected by the extremes of weather. At times her
medical adviser prescribed doses of quinine to gain
relief from the pain of arthritis and eventually she
became very lame. From 1842, she had difficulty in
moving about — ‘now I am unable to go to see
anything’. Her trips were limited to drives in a pony
carriage around the neighbourhood and her jaunts
to London and Weymouth ceased, for she declared
that she had not yet got sufficient courage to use the
railroads. During the following year on 9 August
1843 she informed Mantell, ‘my fossil room is a
perfect chaos. It is so very long since I have been
able to do anything to it... but I cannot help
buying when they come my way’.

To achieve all that she did in her life, apart from
being resourceful, she would need to have been
rather formidable and determined. This is reflected
in her forthright concern over the correct spelling
of the family name. In a letter to the Norfolk
geologist Samuel Woodward (2 May 1829), she
wrote: ‘Pray excuse my saying that there is only one
‘nin my name — it is Benett’.

In November 1842, writing to Gideon Mantell,
who had been a correspondent for thirty years, she
took him to task in a postscript for a more critical
error: ‘Pray allow me to remark that you have lately
taken to spelling my Christian name Ethelred
whereas it is Etheldred as above’ [referring to her
signature]. Confusion over her name had earlier led
to the assumption that her gift of fossils to the
Emperor of Russia had been made by a man and an
honorary doctorate from the University of St.
Petersburg was sent in acknowledgement. (Jackson,
1881, 40).

She was also cautious when determining the
fossils, realising that ‘more good specimens’ were
needed before recognising a new species; and was
extremely cautious about lending her specimens
unless she had numerous duplicates. When
assisting Sowerby to determine the nature of the

large Cretaceous bivalves then being found
throughout the Cretaceous, by lending him her
specimens, that he named ‘Inoceramus’ (see Trans.
Linn. Soc., 13:453-8), Miss Benett waited until she
could safely take them up as ‘travelling
companions’ on a coach journey to London (letter
10 Feb. 1815).

Conclusion

She was undoubtedly a lady of consequence, both in
the 1800s and even at the present time, for research
on her fossil collections still continues. The
obituary attributed to Mantell (1846), recorded that
‘in private life this excellent lady was highly
respected and beloved by a large circle of friends for
her sincerity of manners and never tiring charity
and benevolence.’ Her concern for others is
apparent from the contents of many letters, but
must have been rather awkward for Mantell
himself, as Miss Benett persisted in enquiring
about his wife and family, long after they had all
separated from one another.

In the future, it is hoped to publish further
transcriptions of her letters, together with
chronological lists of all the correspondence that
has been preserved in various archives, for the
benefit of other researchers.

Acknowledgements

I owe a particular debt of gratitude to Tim Lovell-
Smith, of the Manuscript & Archives Section, at the
Alexander Turnbull Library, who kindly provided
copies of the Benett letters in the Mantell Archive
in connection with my research on Mantell’s
collections and publications. These, together with
the occasion of the Mantell Bi-centenary
Symposium in 1990, resulted in their use for an
entertainment based on these letters ‘Believe Me,
Dear Sir!’, which induced this further study of Miss
Benett.

It is also necessary to record my appreciation of
the help given me by the librarians and staff at the
Natural History Museum, London, during my
various projects on 19th-century natural history
derived from work on the Sowerbys. Similarly, Iam
very grateful to the Librarian of the Special
Collections at Bristol University for access to
Benett letters in the Eyles collection and to staff at
Norwich Castle Museum for the opportunity to
examine the Samuel Woodward archive volumes.

MISS ETHELDRED BENETT (1775-1845): HER CORRESPONDENCE 33

A Z
Drees BY feqerarg Wrebronesig

44 CPt eeosio hr play

Aikhset ff Phas te fiat-

Part Wale Aol Pode youre

Sketches by Miss Benett of fossils in her collection that headed a list of her comments on some fossils sent her by Gideon Mantell

(letter, 14 December 1817), but they are not referred to in her letter and only briefly acknowledged in Mantell’s reply of 31 January

1818. In the centre, the fragment of an ammonite she named ‘Drepanites striatus’ figured in her Catalogue (1831, pl. 16, upper
left). The original specimen (ANSP 66006) is now in the Invertebrate Paleontology Department, Academy of Natural Sciences,

Philadelphia, identified as Hyphoplites pseudofalcatus (Semonov, 1899). See Spamer, Bogan and Torrens (1989), 145-9.

Notes

' Woodward, H.B., 1911: see p. 126 In History of Geology.

Watts & Co., London: vit+154 pp.

Cleevely, R. J., 1998a and 1998b, ‘ >? The first female
palaeontologist; & Picture Quiz reply.’ The Linnean,
14 (2):4-9; 25-6.

Mantell, G.A., 1822, see p. 177 In Fossils of the South
Downs, where he named the Cretaceous sponge
Ventriculites benettiae after her.

* Mantell, G.A., 1846, [From a Correspondent] Obituary.

Miss Etheldred Benett. London Geological Fournal,
1846:40.

This quote of Cunnington’s was used by Miss Benett in

the introduction to her catalogue (p.iii); James
Sowerby published something very similar in his
Mineral Conchology, Vol. 1, 1813:146, when referring
to fossils from Chute Farm. Sarah Nash (1990) trying
to locate the site, could only find a ‘Brims Down’ (p.
163) and reported (p.165)that a site known as
‘Picket’s Field’ exposed similar deposits.

‘William Smith’s stratigraphical principles’:
stratigraphy is the term given to the study of the
occurrence of the earth’s rock formations, the
principles of which were first established by Smith in
1815 with the publication of his geological map
(Winchester, Simon , ‘The Map that changed the
World’, Penguin Books). However, these ideas nad
been formulated in part by several other workers.
Smith’s ‘Law of Super-position’ recognised that in
normal circumstances the youngest deposits will rest
on the older and that the succession of rock
formations will follow bed upon bed in chronological
order. Inevitably earth movements will disturb the
original sequence and can cause complications such
as inversions through folding and other earth
movement, or dislocations through faulting, both of
which can be confused further by erosion. Smith’s

second principle was that layers of sediment can be
recognised by means of the fossils they contain. This
enables geologists to correlate certain formations,
although occurring in different places and even of
different lithologies, on the basis of identical fossils.
For other references to Smith see: Joan Eyles,
Dictionary of Scientific Biography, 12, 1975: 486-92.
John Baker (fl. 1814-50) lived at Warminster and
supplied the local Upper Greensand fossils to many
19th century collectors including the Sowerby
family.

8 Miss Beminster (fl, 1820s) lived at Christchurch and

Hordle, Hants.; she corresponded and collected for
James Sowerby.

Torrens, H.S., Benamy, E., Daeschler, E.B., Spamer,
E.E. & Bogan, A.E., 2000, ‘Etheldred Benett of
Wiltshire, England, the first lady geologist - Her
fossil collection in the Academy of Natural Sciences
of Philadelphia, and the rediscovery of “lost”
specimens of Jurassic ‘Trigoniidae (Mollusca
:Bivalvia) with their soft anatomy preserved.’
Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Science of
Philadelphia, 150:59-123.

The species have been re-determined by Dr. Mike
Kerney (pers. comm.) as: Helix palustris = Lymnaea
palustris (Miller); Helix planorbis = Planorbis
planorbis (L.); Helix spirorbis = Anisus leucostoma
(Millet); Helix vortex = Anisus vortex (L.); Helix alba
= Gyraulus albus (Miller); Helix contorta =
Bathyomphalus contortus (L.); Helix hispida = Trichia
hispida (L.); Bulla fontanalis = Physa fontinalis (L.);
Helix stagnalis = Lymnaea stagnalis (L.); Helix
annularis = ? Cepaea nemoralis (L.)

This was very probably William Buckland’s Reliquiae
Diluvianae; or Observations on the organic remains
contained in the caves, fissures, and diluvial gravel,
published in 1823, that related fossil remains,
particularly those he had discovered in the Kirkdale

34 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

cavern, to the Flood. Several contemporary
geologists (Farey, Fleming, Fitton, Smithson)
immediately refuted this contention.

'2 This seems to be confirmed by information on the Web
associated item “Election Time: England 1820” on
the ‘FREE postage mark’ used by MPs, which uses a
letter from John Benett, dated 14 Feb. 1820, to the
Highworth solicitor James Crowdy, concerning the
election for the Parliament of 4 Aug. 1818 - 29 Feb.
1820. This states that John Benett had been elected at
a by-election in 1819, following the retirement of
Paul Mellen on the grounds of ill-health. Apparently
in 1820, Benett stood with John Dugdale Astley of
Everleigh House, Wilts, who became the candidate
for the other county seat at this election. William
Pole Tylney Long Wellesley, who had contested and
was elected in the campaign of 1818, did not offer
himself in 1820.

‘3 John Benett was subjected to another riot at Pythouse
during the 1830 riots of agricultural labourers
seeking an increase in wages and against the use of
threshing machines — see the account Chapter 10, p.
156 in The Village Labourer 1760-1832 . . ., by
Hammond, J.L. & B. (1920).

see H.B. Woodward History of geology (1911,126).

'S Yucca filamentosa, the Silk Grass, named for the curly
white threads which come from the leaf margin, and
which produces a pyramid of creamy-white flowers.
It was one of the many plants brought to England by
John Tradescant the Younger (1608-1682) from N.
America in 1675. This was a hardier species than
Yucca .

References

BENETT, E. 1831a, A catalogue of Wiltshire fossils. In
Sir R.C. Hoare, The Modern History of South Wiltshire,
Vol. 2, Part 2 (The Hundred of Warminster, by H.
Wansey & Sir R.C.Hoare). London: J. B. Nichols & J.
G.Nichols, 117-126

BENETT, E. 1831b, A Catalogue of the Organic Remains of
the County of Wiltshire. J.L. Warminster: Vardy, iv, 9
pp, 18 pls.

CLEEVELY, R.J. 1998a. The first female palaeontologist.
The Linnean, 14 (2), 4-9

CLEEVELY, R.J. 1998b. [Etheldred Benett] Picture Quiz
reply. The Linnean, 14 (2), 25-6

CHARLESWORTH, E. 1840. Etheldred Benett.
Collection London Geological Journal, 1 (2): inside
cover

JACKSON, Rev. Canon J.E. 1881. The Eminent Ladies of
Wiltshire History. WANHM, 20, 26-45

MANTELL, G.A. 1846. Obituary of Etheldred Benett.
London Geological Journal, 1 (1), 40

MURCHISON, R.I. 1832. Presidential Address to the
Geological Society, 17 February 1832. Proceedings of
the Geological Society, 1832 (25), 362-386

MURRAY, J. 1848. Memorial to Etheldred Benett. Mining
Fournal, 18, 54 (29 January 1848)

NASH, Sarah E. 1990. The Collections and life History of
Etheldred Benett (1776-1845). WANHM, 83, 163-9

SPAMER, E.E., BOGAN, A.E. & TORRENS, H.S. 1989.
Recovery of the Etheldred Benett collection of fossils
..Analysis of the taxonomic nomenclature. And Notes
and Figures of Type specimens. Proceedings of the Acad-
emy of natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 141, 115-189

TORRENS, H.S., BENAMY, E., DAESCHLER, E.B.,
SPAMER, E.E. & BOGAN, A.E. 2000. Etheldred
Benett of Wiltshire, England, the first lady geologist
— Her fossil collection in the Academy of Natural
Sciences of Philadelphia, and the rediscovery of ‘lost’
specimens of Jurassic ‘Trigoniidae (Mollusca:
Bivalvia) with their soft anatomy preserved.
Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Science of
Philadelphia, 150, 59-123

WATKIN, B. 1985. Norton Bavant. AS printed pamphlet:
4pp

WOODWARD, H.B. 1911, History of Geology. London:
Watts & Co., vit 154 pp

Correspondence Archives

Benett — Mantell letters [ 1813 — 1843] in Alexander
Turnbull Library, Wellington, National Library of
New Zealand. MS Papers 83 Folders 10a, 100.

Benett — Sowerbys letters [ 1814 — 1840] in the Eyles
Collection, Special Collections Library, Bristol
University.

Benett — Samuel Woodward [1829-38] in Norwich Castle
Museum, Samuel Woodward Volumes, 1832-35.

Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History Magazine, vol. 97 (2004), pp. 35-62

Thomas Kytson and Wiltshire Clothmen,

1529 -—1539
by Colin Brett

This article concerns the purchases of cloth, by the sixteenth-century London merchant Thomas Kytson, from Wiltshire
clothers, or clothmen as he preferred to call them, and the export of those cloths to the four seasonal marts in Antwerp
and Bergen-op-Zoom. A previous article covered Kytson’s dealings with Somerset clothmen.!

Thomas Kytson, born in 1485, was the son of
Robert Kytson of Warton in Lancashire. In his
youth he travelled to London and was apprenticed
to the mercer Richard Glasyer. On the completion
of his apprenticeship he was admitted a freeman of
the Mercers’ Company in 1507.2 He became a
member of the Merchant Adventurers Company
and dealt extensively in cloth exported to the cloth
marts in Flanders and by so doing became an
affluent London citizen. By 1521 he had amassed
enough money to purchase Hengrave Hall near
Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk from the Duke of
Buckingham for £2,340, the estates being valued at
£115 yearly. Later in the decade he acquired manors
in Devon, Dorset, Lancashire, Somerset and
Suffolk as well as property in London. He obtained
a licence from Henry VIII to build an embattled
manor-house at Hengrave. This house, begun in
1525 and finished in 1538, was on a magnificent
scale and reflected the great wealth of its owner.
This wealth enabled him in 1521 to lend Henry
VIII £2,340? and the next year, in an assessment of
the goods and lands of the citizens of London, he
was assessed in goods at 1,000 marks, later amended
~ to 4,000 marks, and in lands at 600 marks.’ He had
extensive financial dealings with the Crown and in
1523 he was indebted to the Crown for £600.° In
1535 he was again assessed at 4,000 marks (the
seventh highest out of 146 citizens).° He had a
house, with a chapel, in Milk Street in the parish of

St. Mary Magdalen’s, a garden in Coleman Street,
and another house with a chapel in Stoke
Newington, besides other houses in Suffolk and
Devonshire. After serving as an alderman he also
served as sheriff of London in 1533 and was
knighted the same year.’ Kytson died on 11
September 1540 and was buried at Hengrave.’

In 1517 Kytson was recorded as one of ‘late
Tresorers of the Merchauntes adventerers by yonde
the see’,’ and in 1525 was elected as one of the four
wardens of the Fellowship of Mercers.!° As such he
sat on the frequent General Courts of the
Fellowship of Mercers and presided over the Courts
of Assistants of the Mercers. He traded extensively
in cloths and other goods at the cloth fairs in
Flanders and appears to have had a house and a
staff of ‘servants’ in Antwerp. Included in this staff
would have been his ‘factor’ who received the cloths
when they were shipped over from London and
carried out the transactions with the continental
merchants. Kytson became, probably, one of the
most affluent of the mercers in the 1530s. After his
death an inventory of his goods revealed that his
warehouses in London held imports of cloth of gold,
satins, velvets, tapestries, fustians, furs, bags of
pepper, madder, cloves etc. valued at £1,181 15s. 1d.

The records of Tudor merchants are few in
number, but among Kytson’s books remarkably
preserved are two in which are recorded his
shipments of cloth to the annual marts. To some

19 Belgrave Crescent, Bath BA] 5JU

36 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

extent the shipping entries in those two books are
duplicated.'!! The second of the books, ‘Thomas
Kytson’s Boke of Remembraunce’!’ also, more
importantly, records the clothmen from whom he
purchased the cloth and the prices he paid. Other
entries include sales of various goods imported by
Kytson from the continent, notes concerning goods
being sent to Hengrave, purchases of land and
property, and memoranda concerning recompense
paid to the merchants in Antwerp or Barrow who
had bought faulty cloth from Kytson. That book
which was started in 1529 and was continued until
shortly after Kytson’s death, contains some
scrawled entries by Kytson himself, but the entries
are mainly by his factors or apprentices George
Collyns, Robert Mathe, Thomas Wasshington and
Nicholas Lunne, with a few later entries in the
impeccable hand of William Cockyshed. A third
book was kept by Thomas Wasshington and is his
account of his dealings as Kytson’s factor at the
Sinxten mart held in 1536.'?

Four annual cloth marts were held in Flanders,
to which convoys of ships set out from London
laden with cloth and other exports such as tin, lead
and leather. The four marts were the Paasmarkt or
Pask mart (the passion or Easter mart) which began
on Maundy Thursday; the Pinxten or Sinxtenmarkt
(the Pentecost Fair) which began on the second
Sunday before Whitsuntide; the Bamis mart (St.
Bavo’s Fair) which started on the second Sunday
after the feast of the Assumption (15 August) and
the Koudmarkt or Cold mart which commenced on
the Thursday before All Hallows Eve (31 October).
The Sinxten and Bamis marts were held at Antwerp,
and the Pask and Cold marts at Bergen-op-Zoom
(known to English merchants as ‘Barrow’).
Antwerp, located near the conflux of the Rhine,
Maas and Scheldt rivers, was on the trade routes
used by German and Italian traders on their
missions to Italy and the Danube basin. It was also
conveniently sited for access to English and French
ports, and placed on the sea routes used by the
Hanseatic traders. Bergen-op-Zoom, only some
thirty miles distant from Antwerp, was equally
placed to enjoy the benefits of pan-European trade,
but by the time that Thomas Kytson was using the
marts its role was changing. Bergen-op-Zoom
continued as a ‘fair town’ but mainly dealt with
foreign traders only during the Pask and Cold
marts. Antwerp, however, enlarged its foreign
dealings from the peaks of the Sinxten and Bamis
marts such that its business became more
continuous, but this expansion was moderated by

the Merchant Adventurers’ desire to maintain the
periodicity of their trading at all four marts,
especially the Sinxten mart. Antwerp drew
merchants from across Europe to buy the famed
English cloths and its Bourse provided the pre-
eminent financial centre for the exchange of
currency or the settlement of bills. In addition,
Antwerp very nearly monopolized the European
cloth-finishing industry. In 1537, there were 1,348
cloth finishers and journeymen employed in the
conversion of the unfinished English cloths to the
final fully-dressed and dyed cloth that the
European middle classes craved for.'4

An extract from the ‘Boke of Remembraunce’ of
the entries relating to Kytson’s dealings with
Wiltshire for one year is given in Appendix 1. The
shipping entries, notes and memoranda are written
in English, but the records of purchases and sales
are written in a mixture of abbreviated French,
Latin and English, with the purchase prices being
in code. This use of coded information was in
accordance with the rules of the Mercers that ‘no
parson [person] shall discover to any straunger oute
of the felishipp .. . what his good cost hym at the
first bying or any tyme after . . . [and] the previtie or
Secrettes of the buying of the wares shall not be
discoverd nor understoud, uppon payn of £20
sterling’.!° A typical simple entry of two purchases
is

Acchat de John Coope’ de Edynton in Wilshere le 25
io’ de May A° 1531
Item v whit, desC 's pd pe’

Item 1 fyn whit de f' C’p? iij' vj 8°
Sm‘ Tolls xvj''xs
pd le mayr’ io' Sm? xvj' xs

which equates to

Bought of John Cooper of Edington in Wiltshire the
25th day of May of the year 1531

Item 5 whites at 46s Sd the piece £13 3s 4d

Item | fine white at £3 6s Sd £3 6s 8d
Total sum £16 10s

Paid the next day Sum £16 10s

The first two lines record the initial bargain struck
between Thomas Kytson and John Cooper for 5
white cloths at 46s. 8d. the piece, and the third line
records that a further 1 cloth of finer quality was
bargained for, with the total amount to be paid
being given on the fourth line. The final line shows
that Cooper was paid the next day.

Throughout the book the coded price (here in

THOMAS KYTSON AND WILTSHIRE CLOTHMEN, 1529 -1539 37

italics) appears to be the maximum price Kytson was
prepared to pay, or in the cases of the entries of his
sales the minimum at which he hoped to sell his
wares. The majority of cloths purchased were in
packs of 10, and the purchase price was given for
the pack. When smaller quantities were purchased
the price was either for the pack, the half-pack or
for individual cloths.

Sometimes not all the cloths that were
bargained for were delivered at the time of
bargaining. Such an entry in Kytson’s book is

Acchat de Thomas Davy of Warmester le 8 io’ de
ffebruary A° 1531
packe lvij! vjs viijd
Sm? lvij"' vjs viijd
Resaved xii) whit, of the said 20 reste to Rs vij whit, /
whiche he haythe promysed to deliv’ on this syde
palme Sonday next comyng And he to have after the
said rayt as he hasse for thes afore resaved

pd le eodem io’ xxviij" 13°44
Rs le 14 10° de M’che a° 1531 vij whit,
Rs le 19 io’ de M’che a° 1531 v whit,

which equates to

Bought of Thomas Davy of Warminster the 8th day
of February of the year 1531
Item 20 whites at £28 13s 4d at £28 13s 4d
the pack £57 6s 8d
Sum £57 6s 8d

Received 13 whites of the said 20, [the] rest to receive
7 whites, which he hath promised to deliver on this
side Palm Sunday next coming. And he to have after
the said rate as he has for these afore received
paid the same day £28 13s 4d
Received the 14th day of March of the year 1531

7 whites
Received the 19th day of March of the year 1531

5 whites

Here the bargain was for 20 whites but only 13 were
delivered by Thomas Davy, and he was paid for
only 10 of them, perhaps as a security that the
bargain would be honoured by Davy. Five weeks
later the 7 cloths required by the bargain were
delivered, and five days after that an additional 5
cloths were delivered. Kytson’s factors often, as in
this case, did not record that the outstanding and
additional cloths were paid for.
Another entry of a similar kind is

Bought of Rychard Batte the 21st day of May of the
year 1534

Item 50 whittes at £32 16s 8d at £32 16s 8d the pack.
Sum £164 3s 4d

Memorandum. Resaved at the bargayn makyng 40

whittes, and he hathe promysed to delyver 10 whittes

moo within 2 days hereafter

Resaved the 23rd day of May of the year 1534

10 whittes at £32 16s 8d £32 16s 8d

Richard Batte was as good as his word in delivering
the 10 ‘whites’ within two days, which raises the
question of how he managed it. Batte, of Westbury,
had probably travelled to London with his fellow
townsman William Adlam and John Brede, Robert
Petter and John Norinton of Devizes who all made
bargains with Kytson on 21 or 22 May. Batte could
not have arranged for the 10 cloths to be
transported from Westbury to London within the
two days. Had he been touting the cloths around
the London mercers or did he sell another
clothman’s ‘whites’ to Kytson on 23 May? An
alternative, but unlikely, suggestion is that Kytson
might have travelled to Wiltshire to deal with his
clothmen; but he would then have had the task of
taking some 141 cloths of Batte and his fellow
workers to London. The entries in the ‘Boke’ do not
suggest that the prices paid to Kytson’s suppliers
were offset by the costs incurred in taking the cloths
to London, or that they were specifically charged
for these costs.

Kytson’s main interest was in the unfinished
broadcloths or ‘whites’ although he did buy
significant quantities of ‘penestones’!® from
Cheshire and also some ‘Kentish russets’,!’
‘friezes’,'® ‘cottons’,!’ ‘kersies’””’ and ‘Castlecombs’.”!
The main centre of production of the ‘whites’ was
in the valleys of the Avon and Frome rivers, and the
area from Warminster to Devizes, so that Kytson’s
suppliers came predominantly from Somerset and
Wiltshire. The places where most of his suppliers
lived may be determined from the entries in his
‘Boke of Remembraunce’. Although Professor
Carus-Wilson, when writing about Kytson’s ‘Boke’,
stated ‘the pre-eminence of west Wiltshire for the
manufacture of white woollen broadcloth is
immediately apparent from a perusal of Kitson’s
book,” the present author has shown that this
claim is incorrect.” Wiltshire came second to
Somerset in supplying Thomas Kytson with the
cloths which he exported to the Continent. From
the entries in Kytson’s ‘Boke’ the overall statistics
relating to his purchases and exports of ‘whites’
may be determined, and are shown in Table 1. The
purchases are here collated in “Exchequer years’ so

38 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

that Kytson’s share of the English exports may be
determined. The Exchequer year ran from
Michaelmas to Michaelmas because the Crown, like
other great landlords, made up its accounts at
harvest time. The export figures for cloth and the
customs derived from them were recorded by port
officials and ultimately the summation of these
figures was made up by Exchequer clerks in the
Exchequer Enrolled Accounts.”

The Wiltshire clothmen and the numbers of
‘whites’ they sold to Kytson in each ‘Exchequer
year’ are shown in Table 2. The clothmen and their

collated numbers of cloths are listed in
chronological order, as they appear in the ‘Boke’.
Unlike in Somerset where Thomas Kytson
bought the greatest number of cloths from a single
clothman (3340 cloths from John Clevelod of
Beckington), Kytson had no preferred Wiltshire
clothman to supply his needs. Over the 10 years
covered by his Boke of Remembraunce the
principal Wiltshire suppliers were Richard Batte,
Roger Tanner and John Lawrens, all of Westbury,
who each supplied more than 400 cloths. Richard
Erlle of Melksham, Robert Adlam and John

Table 1. Thomas Kytson’s purchases and exports of white broadcloths, 1529 - 1539.

Exchequer Year, Michaelmas to Michaelmas

1529- | 1530- | 1531- | 1532- | 1533- | 1534-
1530 1531 1532 1533 1534 1535

Number of whites
bought by Kytson

other or 35 14
unknown*

1029 we) zs 980 538 500
30 33 33 20

556 822 1409

1479 | _1107 | _1531

Wiltshire share % 50.4 31:3 42.1
Number of whites

exported by

Kytson

Wiltshire 655

30.4

659 | 939 | 123 |__ 894 |

548 284

1722

1480

1848 818

Wiltshire share % 8

Total number of
cloths exported by
denizens. **
Kytson /
Wiltshire share of
total exports %

I —

He. 5
eae a Ee

42,812 | 36,069 | 32,241 | 44, ae — 292 | 42, — — 143 | 47,458 | 49,288

Sources:

1, Cambridge University Library (CUL) Hengrave Hall MS.78/2. (Raw data).

2, E. M. Carus-Wilson and O. Coleman, England’s Export Trade 1275-1547. (Number of cloths exported by denizens).

* The figures for cloths from Wiltshire and of other or unknown clothmen differ slightly from those originally given in
Reference 1. This is partially accounted for by re-attribution e.g. Katherine Pyarde (whose domicile is not given) is now
assumed to be the widow or daughter of Christopher Pyarde of Trowbridge. Additionally a few whites (‘cowrse whites of
Herefordsher makyng’, ‘Walche whites’, ‘Castelcomes’ made in Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, and ‘long whites’ of
Weobley and Ludlow) are not included in the above figures.

** Woollen cloths were accounted for in terms of the standard ‘cloth of assize’, measuring approximately 24 yards long by
1% to 2 yards wide when fulled and finished. Cloths of other sizes were converted for customs purposes into cloths of
assize. The Wiltshire broadcloth ‘whites’ conformed to cloths of assize. ‘Denizens’ are defined as merchants who were
regarded for customs purposes as if they were native-born subjects of the King and who cannot be identified as aliens
from the accounts.

THOMAS KYTSON AND WILTSHIRE CLOTHMEN, 1529 -1539

Table 2. Sales of ‘whites’ by Wiltshire clothmen to Thomas Kytson.

Exchequer Year, Michaelmas to Michaelmas

Clothmen?s | 1529 | 1530 | 1531 | 1532 | 1533 | 1534 | 1535 | 1536 | 1537 |] 1538

1529
1530 | 1531 a ae 1534 | 1535 | 1536 | 1537 | 1538 | 1539 | 1539

George Adlam of Westbury 20

John Reynold of Steeple 15

Ashton

Thomas Ashlocke of 12 40

Haytesbury

Richard Erlle of Melksham 105 205
55
mea

John Cooper of Edington (ae) | a ea
Robert Adlam of Westbury Fi 3] 40
Edward Hannam of
Westbury
Roger Tanner of Westbury 40 | 176} 232 a

Robert Bathe of Westbury | =| 40] 37] | |

John Lawrens of Westbury 15 ef. fe] Sra a
Thomas Davy of Westbury 10 ef. fe]

John Baker of Devizes

=
John Vaugham of 190 34
Westbury
John Usher of Westbury 10
a

—_

William Eyer of 10
Warminster
John Adlam of Westbury cae’ 30 ba 20 155

John Knyght of Devizes == aoe Hatt 26
John Knyght
53 81 | 65 nee ii9
Richard Batte (Bates) of ao =a] 105 289 ee 675
Westbury
i 20 80
Richard Mydlecote of ae 30
Warminster
‘another man’ a 10
John Knyght of 10 30
Bishopstrowe
Edward Longford 10 20
Lanckforth) of
Trowbridge |
John Blagdon of 60
Longbridge | ey
[John Brede ofDevizes | | | 1 eae
20 60

William Adlam
William Adlam the elder

(oes (Ear eal

|__40 |
William Adlam the = 20
younger
Robert Petter of Devizes F
Sa ee
Trowbridge
ba
Horningsham

101

Richard Bathe
John Dyet of Trowbridge -—

John Radmund of Wilton [| | | seal

alm EN Mo
Devizes

Se ee ee
Westbur

cee er TO

ane a 3

John Coke of Laycock Pane

John Hedge of Malmesbury 20* |

40 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

Malmesbury
(Blacdon)
John Rawlins of
Warminster

Edward Banwell of
Westbury

arn

120

aD
o

NR
So
i)
Co

_
oO
om
So
od
o

Aldhelm Lambe

Thomas Longe

Robert Bridges of Iford
John Bennett of
Warminster

John Usher of Warminster

ie —
SO] Wi a

William Holbroke of
Salisbury

John West of Trowbridge
George Rawlins of
Warminster
Richard Cross of Erlestoke
John Duffell of Westbury

ml _ p|_— oo Ww
walN alin CJS} Ww] w o

_
wn

m1 ho
olan

— _
WAT DN

_
So

wll
olo|o

John Lyversidge of
Kilmington

Ww
So

Humphrey Yerbyrre

6 6
78 70 148
32 96

26 62

_
N
oo

the wife of Richard Bayth
(Bathe)
Katherine Pyarde

88
105 145
25

Roger Wynssloe of Keevil

i é
wa o

John Alway of Keevil

John Walesse of
Trowbridge

Robert Fraunces of
Bromham

ae
ke
ia
Richard Adams of Laycock |_|
ie
|
a)
eed
a
=

10 10
45 45
1 1

Totals

393 | 659 | 5164

Source: CUL Hengrave Hall MS.78/2.

* Those cloths are recorded both as ‘whites’ and ‘Castelcomes’.
# 80 of these 120 whites were purchased by Kytson on 11 October 1539 (at the beginning of the 1539 to 1540 Exchequer

year).

Vaugham of Westbury and John Norinton of
Devizes each delivered more than 200 cloths.
Towards the end of Kytson’s life, the Alexander
Langfords (senior) and (junior), of Trowbridge,
William Allen of Calne and the widow of Richard
Bathe became major Wiltshire suppliers to Kytson.
As in Kytson’s dealings with his Somerset contacts
it is not to be supposed that other clothmen from
whom Kytson purchased cloths were necessarily
small producers. Clothmen such as Thomas
Ashlocke of Heytesbury, Robert Bathe and the

William Adlams of Westbury, Robert Maye of
Melksham, John Smethe of Devizes and William
Blackden who supplied Kytson with cloths in packs
of 10 must have been major producers who sold
their cloths at other times to other merchants.
Kytson bought ‘whites’ from about 70 Wiltshire
clothmen over the ten-year period covered by his
‘Boke of Remembraunce’. He was only one of many
merchants who purchased ‘whites’ for export to
meet the insatiable demand of the Continent for
English cloths.

THOMAS KYTSON AND WILTSHIRE CLOTHMEN, 1529 -1539

@ Malmesbury

Where Kytson’s Wiltshire
Clothmen Lived

O° 1 clothman
@

2 clothmen
4 6 — 8 clothmen

A 15 clothmen

Bromham
Oo

® Melksham

Trowbridge
4 Keevil 0

Steeple @
Ashton

Devizes

Erlestoke
Oo

OFast Coulston

O ;
Edington
A Westbury

Saaees Bishopstrow

O —_Heytesb
Ce oy

oO
Longbridge

' O
Horningsham

Kilmingtom

R. Nadder

R. Wilye

0 :
mules

15
km

42 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

Table 3. Some prices paid for Wiltshire white cloths by Thomas Kytson.

John Lawrens of Westbury

Roger Wynssloe of Keevil
Source: CUL Hengrave Hall MS.78/2.

Price paid for a pack of 10 cloths

| John Lawrens of Westbury _—|_ £28 13s. 4d., £30, £29, £30, £32, £31 10s, £30
2

£32 10s. and £4 10s the cloth

Richard Batte of Westbury £33, £32, £32 10s, £32 10s., £32 10s., £32 10s.

The prices that Kytson paid for cloths depended
on the quality of the spinning and weaving. In 1529
George Adlam of Westbury and Richard Erlle of
Melksham were paid £33 6s 8d for each pack of 10
cloths, whereas John Reynolds of Steeple Ashton
received only £25 which was about the lowest price
that Kytson ever paid for white broadcloths. Most
of the clothmen were recorded as supplying cloth of
only one quality. John Cooper of Edington, as
shown in the example quoted above, supplied
whites at £25 6s. 8d. the pack (£2 10s. 8d. each) and
one ‘fyn whit’ at £3 6s. 8d.. Another example is:

Bought of John Norinton the 29th day of May of the
year 1536
Item 41 whites at £30 £30 the pack £123
Resaved 36 fyne & 5 cowrsse £14
Resaved the 2nd day of June 5 whites fine

Total sum £137

Here John Norinton of Devizes made a bargain to
supply 41 cloths at £30 the pack, but five of them
were of a coarse quality for which he was to be paid
at the rate of £14 the half pack. Four days later
Norinton supplied 5 whites of a fine quality to
honour the original bargain. The most that Kytson
ever paid for a Wiltshire white broadcloth was £4
13s. 4d., but there were exceptional circumstances
on this occasion. Thomas Wasshington recorded:

Bought of Thomas Bayley thelder by the handes of
hys servand William Wyllkyns the 4th day in March
of the year 1535[6]
Item one fyne whitte at £4 13s 4d at £4 13s 4d

£4 13s 4d
Memorandum that the sayd William Wyllkyns hathe
promyssed the sayd clothe to be 29 yards at the watter
paid the same day, Sum £4 13s 4d

The normal length of a broadcloth was about 25
yards but on this occasion Thomas Bayley had sent
a cloth which would have measured 29 yards ‘at the
watter’ i.e. when wetted, as required by Statute.

The prices that were paid by Kytson to some of
his suppliers for packs of 10 cloths are shown in
Table 3. Most clothmen supplied cloth of consistent
quality as shown by the prices they received.
Others, like Richard Erlle and Roger Wynssloe,
provided Kytson at two separate prices indicating
coarse and fine qualities.

It is possible to determine the average prices
which Kytson paid for the Wiltshire whites and
these are given in Table 4 both for single cloths and
the more usual pack of 10 cloths.

It is also possible to determine what Kytson
paid out for all the cloths that he purchased from
the Wiltshire clothmen. His total expenditure for

Table 4. Prices paid for Wiltshire white cloths by
Thomas Kytson

Price paid by Kytson
1536 — 1537 £3 3s 7d

1537 — 1538 £3 4s 7d £32 5s 1ld
£31 18s 8d

1538 — 1539 £3 3s 10d
Source: Calculated from details in CUL Hengrave Hall
MS.78/2.

Exchequer year

THOMAS KYTSON AND WILTSHIRE CLOTHMEN, 1529 -1539 43

Wiltshire ‘whites’ over the ten-year period was
£16,010 8s. 3d. at an average of £30 15s. 8d. for each
pack of 10 cloths.

Kytson was able to export virtually all the
‘whites’ that he bought. In 1514 an Act had
forbidden the export of unfinished cloth valued at
more than 5 marks (£3 6s. 8d.).”° In 1536 a further
Act raised the price limit to £4 for whites and £3 for
coloured cloths.”” With a few exceptions Kytson
paid less than £4 for single ‘whites’ and exported
these cloths within the law. However, he also
exported the few dearer cloths that he bought. The
single fine ‘white’ that Thomas Bayley sold for £4
13s. 4d. was exported to the Sinkson mart in 1536,
and two ‘fyne whites’ of Roger Wynssloe of Keevil
which cost Kytson £4 10s. each were exported to the
Cold Mart in 1538. One ‘fyne whitte’ that Kytson
bought for £4 6s. 8d. from Richard Batte of
Westbury on 28 April 1537 was exported to the
Sinkson mart at Whitsuntide in 1537 as ‘1 white no
41 of Richard Battes for store’. Later in the year
Thomas Wasshington recorded:

Delivered to my master the 15th day in December in
the year 1537

Item 1 fyne whitt of Richard Battes at £4 6s 8d
which was dyed black in Flannders.

Here was an example of Thomas Kytson reserving a
particularly good white broadcloth for his own use
and identifying it as ‘for store’ so that it was not
sold to the dealers in Antwerp. There the
unfinished cloth was dyed and returned to London
after the Cold Mart in 1537.

With one exception all the Wiltshire cloths
purchased by Kytson were described as ‘whites’.
However in 1535 Kytson purchased 40
‘Castellcomes’ and 19 whites from William Stumpe
and 20 whites from John Hedge of Malmesbury.
When Kytson exported these cloths they were all
described as ‘Castelcomes’. No other Wiltshire
clothmen supplied ‘Castlecombes’ to Kytson. He
did however buy them from clothiers in
Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire.”

Unlike the several Somerset clothmen who
supplied Kytson with other goods, like silver,
kersies and other types of cloth, only one Wiltshire
clothman sold anything other than cloth to him.

Bought of John Duffell of Westbere under the planne

the 17th day of Maye of the year 1537

Item 10 whyttes at £32 at £32 the packe £32
Sum £32

Later, on the same page, a memorandum was
penned:

Memorandum John Duffell owth as dothe a pere by a
nowut made the 24th day in December in the year
1537 & also by a byll of Thomas Harfordes owne
hand as dothe a pere

& for rest thatt he owthe is with the 20" nobylles

£25 14s ld

Rebatte for 79 barell of 3 halpenny bere at 3s the
barrell Sum £11 17s
So rest £13 17s ld

paid to the sayd John as this daye beyinge the 24 day
of December in the year 1537
Item in redye monye to the Sum of £6 13s 4d

Sum £20 9s 5d
Memorandum that the sayd John Duffell hathe
promysed my master of gyft 2 barrelles of 3 halpeny
bere to be delyvered medyatlye after Cristmas in the

year 1537 paid & quytt

An entry in the margin of Kytson’s ‘Boke’ records
that John Duffell was paid for his 10 ‘whites’.
Duffell was then lent 20 nobles (£6 13s. 4d.) by
Kytson but was also in debt in respect of a bill of
Thomas Harford’s. Set against Duffell’s total debt
of £25 14s. 1d. was a rebate of £11 17s. for 79 barrels
of beer supplied by him. He was then paid a further
£6 13s. 4d, making the total sum of £20 9s. 5d. owed
to Kytson. Perhaps in recognition of the loans
Duffell gave Kytson two further barrels of beer.
Later Duffell must have paid the outstanding debt
which is marked as ‘quit’.

From earlier entries in the ‘Boke’ it is evident
that as well as selling cloth John Duffell brewed
beer:

Sold to John Duffelde bere bruyar the 11th day of
November 1533

Item 2 sackes of hoppys n°4 weight 5Cwt / n° [blank]
weight SCwt 3qtr 14lb.

Sum weight all m! [=10Cwt] 3qtr 14lb, at 7s [the Cwt]
£3 16s

Memorandum that John Duffeld hayth resaved of
Thomas Harford £4 the 8th day of January [1533/4],
to be payd in bere, and after that the said £4 be paid
the said John Duffeld hayth grantted to delyver
[word illegible] £4 of his old detts, and further as my
master & he can agre.

Sold to John Duffell macer the 18th day of January of
the year 1533[4]
Item 1 sacke of hoppys at 7s at 7s, weight 342Cwt 3lb.

44 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

Sum 24s 9d
Item on sacke hoppes the first day of Marche of the
year 1533[4], weight 4Cwt 101b at 7s the Cwt.

Sum 28s 7d halfpenny

Sold to John Duffel bere bruar the 29th day of Aprill
of the year 1534

Item 1 sacke of hoppys weight 2Cwt 2qtr 27]b at 7s
the Cwt. Sum 19s 2d

Sold to John Duffelde macer the 19th day of July of
the year 1534
Item 1 sacke hoppys weigth 2Cwt 21]b at 7s the Cwt
Item more | sacke weight 2Cwt 7]b at 7s the Cwt
Item more the 24th day of July 7 sackes weight as
follows. 1 weight 2Cwt 2qtr, 4Cwt 16lb, 3Cwt 3qtr 81b,
3Cwt [l]qtr 14lb, 3Cwt [l]qtr 6lb, 3Cwt 2qtr 18lb,
3Cwt 3qtr 2Ib,
Sum weight all 28Cwt 3qtr 18lb at 7s the Cwt.

Sum £10 2s 4d halfpenny
To paye at plessure

John Duffell, described both as a ‘bere bruyar’ and
‘macer’” was shown as not only buying sacks of
hops but also borrowing £4 from Thomas Harford.
Elsewhere in the ‘Boke’ it becomes evident that
Thomas Harford was a fellow mercer of Thomas
Kytson, and although there is no record that Kytson
bought from Harford his cloths were sometimes
included with Kytson’s purchases in the fardells of
cloths exported to Flanders. The above memoran-
dum perhaps indicates that in 1533-4 Kytson was a
go-between for loans made by Harford to Duffell.
Four years later Duffell still owed money to Harford,
as well as being in debt to Kytson. Kytson certainly
profited from Duffel’s beer. Assuming that Duffel’s
barrels each contained 36 gallons and that the beer
could be sold at three half pence (1'd.) a gallon, the
3s. purchase price per barrel could have turned into a
sale price of 4s. 6d., or a 50% profit.

The ‘Boke of Remembraunce’ records the
exports made by Kytson, and the majority of these
are of cloth, with some Cornish tin also included.
For each mart there was a record made of the ships
and the cloths assigned to each master for the
passage to Flanders. The export of goods to the four
annual fairs was governed by the rules of the
Merchant Adventurers. No merchant was allowed
to ship his goods independently but had to use and
pay for the ships chartered for the collective use of
all of the merchants. The Merchant Adventurers
had three classes of officials to manage the convoy
from London to Flanders. When a fleet was about

to sail for a mart ‘appointers’ were chosen, to see to
its equipment and protection, and those men were
either elected in General Court or named by the
different fellowships of the Adventurers.* In order
to pay for the fleet ‘conduitors’ were chosen who
assessed and levied the necessary rates to pay for the
convoys (the ‘conduit money’), and kept the
accounts.*! Those accounts were checked by the
‘auditors’.*’ The London Fellowship who chartered
the ships also determined when the fleet sailed,
where it went or even if it went at all, depending on
the circumstances and the likelihood of attack by
Scots or Scandinavian pirates.** The ‘appointers’
had ‘to se that the shippes have theire complement
and also furnysshed with men, with vitaill, takkle &
ablements of Warre, lyke & accordyng to the
Charter partie’.* In 1522 Kytson had been elected
as one of the eight ‘appointers’ of the Merchant
Adventurers for the Pask mart,® and in the next
year he became an elected ‘conduitor’ for the
Sinxten mart fleet and sought naval protection by
Henry VIII from ‘the Kyng of Denmarke [who] ys
uppon the See with a grete Navye of Shippes and ys
aryved in the Cost of Flaunders’.*°

In order to mitigate the financial loss that might
have occurred if a ship had been attacked or lost at
sea Kytson arranged, for every sailing to the marts,
for his cloths to be sent on several ships. The
materials were made up into ‘fardells’ of about 40
cloths,*’ and occasionally there was also a ‘truss’ of a
smaller number of cloths. No one fardell contained
more than 32 of any clothman’s cloths, and even the
small number of cloths of a minor producer was
spread throughout the fleet. When Kytson shipped
39 fardells to the Cold mart in Barrow in 1536 they
were distributed between 24 ships, and of these
ships, 19 carried 30 fardells with Wiltshire cloths in
them. The prime-quality whites were wrapped
either in canvas or even in the inferior ‘coarse
whites’ or the cheaper ‘cottons’ or ‘penestones’.
Kytson’s clerks recorded

. for heddes & sydes
shyppyd to the Synckson mart 1536, 76 yerds. Thes
76 yerds mad 4 sydes, quantity in every syd 10 yerdes.
5 [sic = 4] heddes, quantity in every hede 9 yerds.
Total sum 76 yerds.

Item more spent for a syde 19 yerds. Sum 95 yerds,
yelles 71.

there was spent in canvass . .

Often there is an entry in the make-up of a fardell,
such as — ‘Item 1 whitt cowsse of [John] Norintons,
wrappers’. Part of a typical entry in Kytson’s
‘Boke’ is

THOMAS KYTSON AND WILTSHIRE CLOTHMEN, 1529 -1539 45

The shypping by the grace of God to the Colde mart
anno domini 1535

A fardell** no f in the James of Bargyng master under
God Thomas Wattes

Item 32 whites no 2 de Richard Battes

Item 8 penystones de J[ohn] G[ranthams] wrappers

A fardell no C in the Mary Gabriell master under God
John Clarke

Item 32 whites no 4 de Gytfray Whi[t]ackers

Item 7 penystones de J[ohn] G[ranthams] wrappers

A fardell no p in the James of Barkyn master under
God Thomas Wattes

Item 6 whites no 2 de Richard Battes

Item 6 whites no 4 de Gyffray Whi[t]ackers

Item 10 whites no 1 de J[ohn] Clevelodes seconds
Item 10 whites de Thomas Harefordes

Item 7 penistones de John G[ranhams]

A fardell no 7f in the Owsse of London master under
God Robert Archar

Item 32 Castell comes no 6 de William Stumpes
Item 7 penytones of John Granthams

A fardell no Zs in the Mary Thomas of London
master Richard Rede

Item 8 Castell comes no 7 de John Hidges

Item 10 whites no 2 de Richard Battes

Item 2 whites no 4 de Gyffray Wh[i]tackers

Item 1 white no 1 de J[ohn] C[levelodes] thrids
wrappers

Item 1 penystones de John Granthams

The number of the fardell was always given in code;

the codes for numbers 3, 6, 8, 13 and 14 being
illustrated.” Prior to making up the fardells each
batch of clothman’s cloths was allocated a number,
and here the numbers 1, 2, 4, 6 and 7 corresponded
to the cloths of John Clevelod, Richard Batte,
Geoffrey Whitacker, William Stumpe and John
Hedges respectively.’ Professor Carus-Wilson has
stated that Kytson’s ‘cloths were carefully graded
and described by numbers ranging from 1 to 19”,*!
but this is not the case. The numbers related to the
clothman, and were allocated afresh for each
shipping. If a clothman supplied different grades,
as did John Clevelode, the grades were usually al!
allocated the same number. Here the clerks noted
that John Clevelod’s 10 seconds and 1 ‘thrid’ (third)
were both given the same identification number ‘1’.
Occasionally, as shown in Appendix 1 in the
extracts from Kytson’s ‘Boke’ for the whites
exported to the Synxten mart in 1537, a clothman’s
whites might have two numbers allocated but these
were for different grades, e.g.

no 4 of John Smeths fine’ and ‘no 7 of John Smeth
C[oarse],
‘no 19 of T[homas] Bayles’ and ‘no 23 of Baleys fine’
‘no 1 of Richard Battes’ and ‘no 41 of Richard Battes
for store.

For the shipping to this Cold mart Kytson used
13 different ships to carry 23 fardells of cloth.
Wiltshire cloths were included in 13 fardells carried
in 11 of the ships. It is also recorded that 11 of the
ships also carried 121 blocks of Cornish tin as shown
in Table 5. Each block was allocated a separate
number which was recorded by the clerk, Nicholas
Lunne, who also noted “Total sum 121 blockes tynne
Cornysshe to the Cold Marte A° 1535, freght fre’.

Ship and
home port

Master’s name

Cornish

Table 5. Kytson’s ex-
ports to the Cold Mart
1535

Fardell
numbers

Richard Holmes

Trinite of London
John Sowle

1,9
Phe)

John Leche

Catherine of Calais
James of Barking Thomas Wattes

Richard Rede
John Baptist of Lee

Cristopher of Maidstone Symond Barnes

Source: CUL Hengrave
Hall MS.78/2.

1
1
1
1
1

4
5
0
0 12, 14*
0

* indicates the fardells
that contained Wiltshire

Wolsey of London Robert Gage

cloth

46 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

The weight of each block of tin being Somerset clothmen and they all occurred early in
approximately 3 hundredweight probably the decade covered by the ‘Boke’.

accounted for them being carried ‘freight free’ as
they would have been useful as stabilizing ballast.

The numbers of white broadcloths exported by
Thomas Kytson to the Flanders marts are shown in
Tables 6 and 7. The exports are collated in
‘Exchequer years’.

When the numbers of cloths exported by
Kytson are compared with his purchases there are
some differences in the annual totals, but those may
be explained by the fact that cloths were being sent
by the clothmen to London after the last sailing to
the Sinxten or Bamis marts and before the end of
each Exchequer Year. It also appears that not all of
the cloths that Kytson purchased were exported.

Sold to Thomas Taylour of Trowbridge in Wiltshire
the 27th day in October of the year 1529
Item 36 whittes bowght of Alys Cope Widdowe as
shall apere in Purchases folio 142 at 44s 5d 1 halfpenny
sterling the clothe & solde to the said Taylor at 46s Sd
sterling the clothe at all one with a nother £83 10s
Total Sum £83 10s
Paid the same day £83 10s

Sold to Syr Edward Baynton knyghte of Wilsher the
27th day of May of the year 1530

Item 1 chyne [chain] of fyne gold, weight 29 %
ounces at 54s 10d the ounce & 5d over in all

: : £80 18s

The total number of Wiltshire cloths exported by :
: : Item in Redy mony to Master Edgar for hym £35 2s

him over the ten-year period amounted to 5073 out
Sum £116
of the 5201 that he purchased. Ae ava Galo audit nee
The ‘Boke of Remembraunce’ records the sales ae :

To pay at Ester next £58

made by Thomas Kytson in England, and of these
only six were made to Wiltshire men. These were

: 1d to Robert Adl fe ber of
only a fraction of the sales made by Kytson to Sold te-RobermAdlame the Indes ous Diemuete

the year 1530

Table 6. Thomas Kytson’s exports of white broadcloths to the Flanders marts.

Mart
lee gre Oo el Cold

| Cold |
Exchequer Year,
1529 - 1530 Wiltshire eee
Total 197 428 eS OS
1530 — 1531 Wiltshire [| 86 [| 70 Oi 39
Total 311 157 216 | 990 |
15311532 | Wiltshipes 186 | 19k eo ee
ea ae 1S as ae ee ee
1532 — 1533 Wilshire {389 f 138 foe
Total ie) ae eee ee ae
Seat Witishire ff
pee Pe otal 2 S76 983
15341535. Ne. 2 ee Wilishipe ess es Se
PSEreraiee aegis at ee cee
1535 — 1536 Wiltshire 377
caer eee eS a a ee a
REE Sa ee en Tce ES ed a a eS)
Beare ee an ee eee ee ae
P1537 1538. 5 ee Wiltshire ee es
ee ee es ae ee ae ees es
15382153900 1 aes it Waltsbize: 7 A832. 1 te 330 a a
siege i PO Ht i
1539 - 1540 Wiltshire 0
Total 14

Source: Calculated from details in CUL Hengrave Hall MS.78/2.

THOMAS KYTSON AND WILTSHIRE CLOTHMEN, 1529 -1539 47

Table 7A. Thomas Kytson’s exports of Wiltshire white broadcloths, 1529 — 1534.

Exchequer Year, Michaelmas to Michaelmas

1529-1530 | 1530 -------- 1531 1531 - - - - 1532 1532 - - - - 1533 | 1533 -- - - 1534

Mart

Clothman
Nic. Affarnwell
George Adlam
Thos. Ashlocke
Richard Erlle
John Reynolds
John Cooper
Richard Adlam
Roger Tanner
Edm Hannam
Robert Baythe
John Lawrens
Thomas Davy
of
Warminster
ohn Ussher
ohn Vaugham
ohn Baker
William Ayre
John Adlam
John Knyght of
Devizes
John Norinton
Robert Maye
Richard Batte
Rich Mydlecote
Robert Adlam
John Knyght of
Bishopstrowe
William Adlam
Robert Petter
John Blagdon
Total

sf | ait
Oo
ia Sinxten

TUT ET tele Pf fee
CELE SED ss EE Se

_
i)
So

oO}
as NS) :

Cue

_
—
oO

Ss aS eee

eo —
— wm
oS i=) i=)

135

Source: Calculated from details in CUL Hengrave Hall MS.78/2. The clothmen and their collated numbers of cloths are
listed in chronological order, as they appear in the ‘Boke’.

Item 1 pece holland quantity 42% Aunes” 251 elles Resaved the same £6 15s 9d

at 10d 21s 3d
Item 1 pece holland quantity 41% Aunes 24 elles 4 Sold to John Rennoldes of Stepulaston in Wilshar
quarters? at 12d 24s 10d Clotheman the 22nd day of May of the year 1531
Item ] pece holland quantity 41 Aunes 24 elles 3 Item one Balle of Ulmus fustyan at £27 10s [Flemish]
quarters at 13d 26s 8d halfpenny price £17 16s 8d
Item 2 half balles of wode 3C [1]qtr 26lb at 18s the C To pay the 24 day of August next
£3 2s 7d Memorandum that my master hasse in gayge for the
Total Sum £6 15s 5d payment of the said £17 16s 8d one baylle of drye

Item plus a elle of barras canvas at 4d
Total Sum £6 15s 9d

pepper weight 2C [l]qtr 20 lb of the said John
Raynoldes to be delyvered to the said John at the

THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

Table 7B. Thomas Kytson’s exports of Wiltshire white broadcloths, 1534 -— 1539.

n
x
g
—
ro)
a
a
a
°
—
8
:
—
oO
3
a
a
enh
3
o
>
a)
3
joy
o
a
3)
al
Q

homas Ashlocke

William Blackdon

William Stumpe
John Norinton
William Holbro
John Weste
John Ussher
John Bennett
John Rawlins
Edward Banwell
John Knyght of
Bishopstowe
Aldhelm Lambe
of fi
Richard Adams
Richard Crosse

Horningsham
John Hedges

Geof. Whitacker
John Smyght of
Wm. Adlam sen
Wm. Adlam jnr
Wm. Adlam
Robert Heryot
Richard Bathe
Thomas Davy of
Thomas

John Knyght

Richard Batte
John Coke

Clothman
Radmund
Richard

Midelcote

THOMAS KYTSON AND WILTSHIRE CLOTHMEN, 1529 -1539 49

William Allen
Katherine Pyet

jun
sen

Mistress Baythe
(Bathe)

John Walles

Robert Fraunces
Total

Source: Calculated from details in CUL Hengrave Hall MS.78/2. The clothmen and their collated numbers of cloths are

listed in chronological order, as they appear in the “Boke’.

payment a fore rehersed of £17 16s 8d

delyvered to John Raynoldes the 26th day of August
of the year 1531

Item 1 baylle of drye pepper weight 2C [1] qtr 20 lb.
And quites.

Sold to John Norinton of the Vyes Clotheman the

25th day of May of the year 1531

Item 2 ballettes of woode weight 3 % C 4 lb at 17s the

hundreth. Sum £3 1d halfpenny farthing
Sum £3 1d halfpenny farthing

Sold to Roger Tanner the 22nd day of August of the
year 1532
Item one tonne of Syvell oyle at £15 at £14.

Sum £14

Perhaps in the sale to Thomas Taylour of the 36
whites that he had bought from the widow Cope,
can be discerned a desire to sell quickly these poor
quality cloths at a minimal profit rather than risk
their failure to sell in the Flanders marts.

The sale of the fine gold chain to Sir Edward
Baynton illustrates two points. Firstly, that Kytson
sometimes rounded up the sale price to his
advantage, here the actual price of £80 17s. 7d was
increased to a round £80 18s. Secondly, Kytson
charged Sir Edward £35 2s. which the latter must
have owed to ‘master Edgar’, and was given until

-‘Haloutyd’ (All Hallows, 1 November) and the
following Easter to pay the total debt in two
instalments.

The two sales of woad indicate that Robert
Adlam and John Norinton probably fulled and
dyed some of their cloths for local sale. The ‘Seville
oil’ sold to Roger Tanner would have been olive oil
used in the spinning of the wool and distributed or

sold by him to his spinners. Oil was used at the rate
of about 8 to 10 pounds per the 60 or 70 pounds of
wool in each cloth® so a tun of oil would have been
sufficient for approximately 300 cloths. The
‘holland’ (a linen fabric made in the province of
Holland in the Low Countries), the ‘barras’ canvas
(a coarse cloth made of hemp or flax, in this case of
unknown provenance)** and the ‘Ulmus’ fustian (a
coarse cloth made in Ulm from cotton and flax)”
illustrate the kind of fabrics that Thomas Kytson’s
factors bought in the marts and then had shipped
home to London. These purchases are not recorded
in the ‘Boke’, but the dispersal of the imported
materials are sometimes commented on:

Delyvered to my master the 24th day of December of
the year 1530

1 fyne pece of Holonde, quantity 24 Flemish elles, the
which pece holonde clothe my master dyd geve to
Master Recorder of London

Delyvered to my master the 7th day of July of the year
1531

one turks carpett, which carpett my master gaffe to
master Recorder of London

It is noteworthy perhaps that Kytson made these
two gifts of a length of holland and a Turkish carpet
to the ‘master Recorder of London’, one John Baker
who served in this elected office from 1526 to
1535.4° As the vast majority of the entries in
Kytson’s ‘Boke’ (except for the shipping lists and
memoranda of deliveries to his wife at Hengrave)
are concerned with the recording of amounts of
money involved in the purchase or sale of goods,
the question is raised whether the gifts to John
Baker were bribes; was Kytson guilty of some
misdemeanour or did he seek Baker’s help in some

50 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

advancement? Within a year or so Thomas Kytson
was elected to the shrievalty of London.

The sale of one bale of Ulmus fustian to John
Rennolds was coupled with a sale of nearly two and
a half hundredweights of pepper. Thomas
Wasshington noted in his memorandum that his
master had ‘in gayge’ (engaged = bound by
contract) for the sale of one bale of dry pepper to
Rennolds. The pepper was to be delivered to
Rennolds in three months time when the payment
of £17 16s. 8d. for the fustian was made.
Presumably John Rennolds subsequently sold most
of the pepper to his Wiltshire neighbours.

Other entries in the ‘Boke’ are of interest to
Wiltshire, such as the memoranda penned by the
clerks:

Memorandum that I Thomas Wasshington hathe
payd unto Henrye van Acland of Andwerpe for
stoppes, holes & other fawtes in John Vaugham
clothes sold to hym in the Sinkson Martte 1533, Sum
40s Flemish

Memorandum that I Thomas Wasshington hathe
payd unto Lenard Depetter factor for Nycholas
Wollffe for stoppes, holes & other fawtes in John
Adlam clothes sold to hym in the Bamis martt 1533.
Sum 40s Flemish

Here Thomas Wassyhgton was recording that
recompense had been paid to Henry van Acland
and Nicholas Wollfe for faulty cloths of John
Vaughan and John Adlam sold at the Sinxten and
Bamis marts in 1533. The two Flemish merchants
had each been paid 40 Flemish schellingen
(shillings). Altogether there are records of 13
instances where recompense was paid for faulty
cloths made by Wiltshire clothmen. It is not clear
exactly how many cloths were faulty but on the
basis that recompense was paid at some 10s. or 15s.
per cloth, it appears that about 28 cloths or 0.5% of
Kytson’s exports of Wiltshire ‘whites’ had escaped
detection by the aulnagers’ inspections before they
were exported. Another entry of this type is:

Memorandum that I Nicholas Lonne [Lunne] hath
resaved agayn of the Pymmels 10 whites of Roger
[Richard] Battes whiche I sold to them in the Passe
marte 1534, which was sold to them for £51 [0]g,
which I toke a gayne as yt was agreatt by 2 indeferent
men whiche clothes was fulle of holles & stoppes, and
was sold agayne to Ayrt van Wellick as yt appereth by
my enteryng [2] for £45 [0]g [Flemish]. Wherin ther
was lost £6 [0]g to be resaved of Richard Batte.

Item mor paid by me Nicholas Lonne to Anthony
Bumbargym for fawttes in Robert Mayes clothes sold
to hym in the Cold mart 1533 for holles & stoppes. 6s
8g [Flemish]

Resaved of Robert May the 28th day in September 5s
sterling

This entry records that two independent
arbitrators had been appointed to settle the
complaint of the Pymmels against Kytson. The
Pymmells probably were agents, because there are
instances where faulty cloths were recorded as
being ‘resaved from the Pymmels, sold to Garard
van Rotyngham’. Nicholas Lunne had taken back
10 whites of Richard Batte, repaid the Pymmels
their 51 Flemish pond groot and resold the defective
cloths to Ayrt van Wellick for 45 pond groot. Lunne
then recorded that the resulting loss of 6 pond groot
was to be received from Richard Batte in the future.
In the second item there is a glimpse of the
exchange rate at the Cold mart in 1533. The
payment of 6 schellingen 8 groten is equated with the
5 shillings sterling which the clothman, Robert
May subsequently paid. The exchange rate was 26
schellingen 8 groten to 20 shillings sterling.

From these records can be learnt the names of
some of Thomas Kytson’s dissatisfied customers in
Antwerp and Barrow. Besides Henry van Acland,
Nicholas Wollffe, the Pymmels, Ayrt van Wellick
and Anthony Bumbargym there were Philip
Lenycke, John van Clett, George Kester and Jacob
Stott.

Thomas Kytson’s financial arrangements with
his clothmen show that he always paid his
established suppliers in cash on receipt of the
cloths. When he made a bargain with a new supplier
it appears that, not surprisingly, he wanted to see all
the cloths that he had bargained for before paying
any money. An entry in Kytson’s ‘Boke’ reads

Bought of George Adlame of Westbere under playne
the 18th day of March of the year 1529

Item 20 whites £33 6s Sd at £33 6s 8d the pack. Sum
£33 6s 8d

Resaved the same day 10 whites

paid the same day £33 6s 8d
Item that I George Adlame promyse my master to
delyver by twene this & Witsontyde & herveste. 10
whites. I have sette my hand & he to have for them £33
6s 8d, so that they be as good of leynthe, wole,
spynnyng & makyng &c by me [signed] George Adlam
Resaved the 18th day of May of the year 1530 10
whites

THOMAS KYTSON AND WILTSHIRE CLOTHMEN, 1529 -1539 S1

The bargain made in March 1529/30 was for 20
whites at £33 6s. 8d. the pack, but only 10 whites
were received and paid for on the same day. George
Adlam put his signature to his promise to deliver
the remaining 10 whites between Whitsuntide and
harvest. The cloths were received by Kytson on 18
May.

A similar entry in the ‘Boke’ is

Bought of Richard Batte the 8th day of September of
the year 1535
Item 100 whites at £32 the pack Sum £320
of the which 100 whites ys resaved at this day 40
whites. So that there resteth 60 whites which he haith
promised to delyver be twyxt this and Alhalloutide
next comyng. And that thay shall be of as good
spynnynge, lenth and maykyng as thes a fore resaved,
and yff he make more the said 60 whites to delyver
them at the said prisse which ys £32 for every packe.
To in hand as the clothes ys resavid £220
To pay the fyrst day in May next. Sum £100
Resaved the 7th day of October of the year 1535

40 whites
Resaved no moo whites of Richard Batte to the Cold
Mart 1535 but 80 whites for the which he was paid
after £32

Here Richard Batte bargained with Kytson to
supply 100 whites of which only 40 were delivered.
Batte then promised to deliver the remaining 60
before All Hallows (1 November), but only
managed to deliver a further 40. This entry
illustrates a further point. All Hallows was the last
day allowed by the Merchant Adventurers for
shipping to the Cold mart.” By not receiving the
last 20 cloths by this date Kytson missed the
opportunity to sell them at the Cold mart. Although
Richard Batte missed the All Hallows deadline he
delivered a further 190 whites to Kytson by the
following June.

Before 1535 clothiers had usually marked their
cloths with a distinctive mark, but by a Statute
enacted in that year it had been made imperative:
‘every Clothier within this Realm shall weave, or
cause to be woven, his or their several Token or
Mark in all and every Cloth, Kersey and other
Cloths, whatsoever they be, made and wrought to
be uttered and sold.’ The ‘Boke’ contains
drawings of the marks of 24 Wiltshire makers, all
entered between 1535 and 1538. The marks are
illustrated in Appendix 2, together with a note of
the colour of each mark.

In the autumn of 1538 Nicholas Lunne penned
the following entry

Bought of the wyffe of Richard Bayth by the handes
of Aldam Lame the 6th day in September 1538.
Item 80 whites at £32 at £32 the pack. Sum £256.0.0d
[a clothier’s mark appears in the margin]

Resaved the same day 40 whites, and he hayth
promysed that the other 40 to be delyvered on this
syd Alhalowtid and that they shall be of as good woll,
lenthes, spynnyng & maykyng as thes ayr afor
resaved, and to pay as thay ayr resaved the 2 partes in
hand and the rest at Candelmas next; and yff Aldam
Lam have ned off £20 or £30 14 days after
Alhalowtide he to have ytt in party payment off his
bill payable at Candelmas; & he hayth further
promysed that lyk as thay be marked in the ledes thay
shall hold the sayme lenthes when thay come owt of

the watter.

and later he added
Resaved the 31st day in October 1538 25 whittes
Resaved more the same day 5 whites
Resaved the 19th day in November 1538 7 whites

Resaved the same day in November off this mark

5 whites

{enother clothier’s mark appears in the margin]
£224
Resaved the 22nd day in November 1538 3 whites

These entries show that on 6 September 1538
Aldam Lame [Aldhelm Lambe] made a bargain on
behalf of Richard Bathe’s widow for the sale of 80
whites of which half were delivered that day with
the promise that the remaining 40 would be
delivered before 1 November. Richard Bathe alias
Wheatacre [Whitaker] of Edington had last sold
cloths to Thomas Kytson in June 1536 and had died
afew months before.*! Aldhelm Lambe, probably of
the adjacent parish of East Coulston, was thus
acting for the recently bereaved widow Bathe.*’ The
40 whites delivered on 6 September were paid for
on that day, with the promise, by Nicholas Lunne,
that the remaining 40 would be paid for on
Candlemas Day (2 February). If however, Lambe
wanted £20 or £30 before the middle of November it
would be given to him but deducted from the
amount due to him at Candlemas. Aldhelm Lambe
returned to London on 31 October with 30 whites
from widow Bathe, thus failing to deliver all of the
40 promised whites by the All Hallows deadline.

Another entry shows that Lambe delivered 10
of his own whites on that same day, and another two
on 2 November. He was in London again on 19
November when 12 more of the widow’s cloths were
delivered and also a further two of his own. Three

52 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

days later Nicholas Lunne received a further three
of the widow’s whites. Here are further instances of
a clothman making deliveries of cloth on near-
adjacent days without being able to return home to
Edington and back to London, just as did Richard
Batte in1534 (see above). Why did Lambe deliver
25 and 5 whites separately on 31 October? Had he
been unsuccessfully touting the cloths to other
merchants? Also why were the 7 and 5 cloths
recorded as separate deliveries on 19 November?
This second question is easier to answer. When
Nicholas Lunne penned his original entry on 6
September he added a clothier’s mark in the margin
of the ‘Boke’. This mark must have been that of the
recently deceased Richard Bathe. Of the 12 whites
delivered on 19 November seven of them were
probably marked with Bathe’s mark but the other
five are recorded as being marked with another
mark that incorporates the initials IB. Richard
Bathe’s wife’s name was Joan? who had thus
changed from using her late husband’s mark to a
new mark of her own. This mark was obviously not
recognised by Nicholas Lunne who therefore
recorded the ‘IB’ mark in the margin of the ‘Boke’.
Although the Merchant Adventurers’ rules were
that no cloths were to be shipped to the Cold mart
after All Hallows, Lunne was accepting cloths up to
22 November, the day that he received the last 3
whites of Joan Bathe. He had recorded the make-up
of the 24 fardells and three trusses that were
shipped to the Cold mart in 1538:

The shipping by the grace of God to the Cold Marte
holden in Barrow a° 1538

a fardell no 7 in the Mary Gabriell of Birkylsay
master under God John Hurlock

Item 32 whites n° 1 of mastres Baythes

a fardell no f in the Mary Fortune of Lee
Item 8 whites n° 1 of mastres Baythes

a fardell no Jn in the Catherine of Calles
Item 3 whites n° 1 of mastres Baythes

a truss no mC in the Peter of London
Item 7 whites n° 1 of mastres Baythes

a truss no mB in the Trinite of London
Item 3 whites n° 1 of mastres Baythes

and after he had finished he added:

Memorandum that there remanet unpacked 5 whites
here at home of this marke which was resaved of

mastres Baythe and Aldam Lamme by the handes of
Geffray Whitacker in the sted of thers the 19th day in
November a° 1538

He then drew the IB clothier’s mark, and added ‘the
strypes yallow and the letters rede’.

The inference is that ‘mistress’ Joan Bathe and
Aldhelm Lambe were seen by Nicholas Lunne to be
a form of partnership that had used Geoffrey
Whitaker to take the five whites marked with Joan’s
IB mark to London. Two Geoffrey Whitakers are
known, one of Westbury who sold whites to Kytson
in 1534 and 1535, and the other of Tinhead in the
parish of Edington who objected to his cloths being
subjected to searching by London aulnagers in the
second half of the century and whose will was
proved in 1601.» Richard Bathe (Whitaker) did not
have a son called Geoffrey so it would seem likely
therefore that the Geoffrey who delivered Joan
Bathe’s 5 whites was the Geoffrey of Westbury,
perhaps a brother or near-relative of Richard
Bathe.”

Altogether 85 whites of Joan Bathe had been
delivered, all but five with the recognised mark of
Richard Bathe which were sent to Barrow and five
with the new mark which were not. The next March
Thomas Wasshington added:

Memorandum that thes 5 whittes were delivered to
[?]Cerle the 23rd day in March A° [1538/39]

Thomas Kytson passed on these five whites instead
of exporting them. When the record was made of
the whites exported to the next mart — the Sinxten
mart at Antwerp — only those whites of Joan Bathe
and Lambe that had been received in London after
22 May 1539 were included.

Lambe made the usual promises, as several
times recorded by Kytson’s clerks, that the
remaining 40 cloths would be up to the standard of
the cloths already delivered, but in addition he
‘further promised that like as are marked in the
leads they shall hold the same lengths when they
come out of the water’. Lambe was making this
promise, on behalf of Joan Bathe, in accordance
with the 1535 Statute which stipulated that

When any such Cloth shall be ready made and
dressed to be put to sale, every . . . clothier shall set
his Seal of Lead unto every... Cloth and Kerseys, in
which Seal of Lead shall be contained the true and
just Length of every... Cloth and Kersey, as it shall
duly be found by every Buyer of the same, upon due
Proof thereof to be tried by the Water. And in case

THOMAS KYTSON AND WILTSHIRE CLOTHMEN, 1529 -1539 53

upon any such Proof to be made by any Buyer of
them at the Water, there shall be found less .. .
Length than is contained and specified in every of
their said Seals, then every... Clothier .. . shall lose
the double
Value of so much Cloth as shall want... in Length.*”

and forfeit unto every such Buyer...

Lambe was therefore confident that Joan’s whites
would comply with the recent Statute.

It appears that each clothman normally took his
own whites to London in order to make his bargain
with Thomas Kytson, but in addition to the above
case of Aldhelm Lambe helping the widow Bathe in
autumn 1538 there are a few entries where the
clothmen used other men to carry their cloths.

4 March 1536 Thomas Bayley the elder by the
hands of his servant William Wylkyns

13 Oct 1536 John Bennett of Warminster by the
hands of Robert Stokes

27 April 1537. John Smeth of Devizes by the hand
of T Clevelode

24 May 1538 William Allen by the hands of
William Ysse

6 June 1538 William Adlam by the hands of
Robert Adlam the younger

24 Oct 1538 Richard Adams of Laycock by the
carrier William Lerde

15 Nov 1538 Alexander Longford the elder by
the hands of John Nashe carrier

22 May 1539 the wife of Richard Bathe by the
hands of Aldhelm Lambe

10 June 1539 ~—s the wife of Richard Bathe by her
carrier

2 June 1539 Aldhelm Lambe by John Barle
6 June 1539 Aldhelm Lambe by Ryse Peyett
6 June 1539 Aldhelm Lambe by Thomas Grove

In the early years of the ‘Boke’ a record was kept
of the costs of shipping the wares to and from the
fairs. These records are all lightly crossed out, not
because they were wrong, but probably as though
they were re-entered in another book, now lost.*
The following record illustrates the varied costs
involved in getting the fardells of cloth on to the
ships, and other ancillary costs:

Costes of clothes shipped to the Cold Mart holden in
Barrowe A° 1531

pd for byndyng of 11 fardells at 9d the fardell 8s 3d
pd for carying to the watter syde of 7 fardells at 6d the
fardell. Sum 3s 6d
pd for carying to the wattersyde of 4 fardells and to the
cartars for watching for them, at9d the fardell 3s 3d

pd for cokkettes 16d
pd and geven to the maryners of Birkilsay for taykyng
in of a fardell when yt was lyckly to rayne 2d
pd and Geven to the Sarchers 4s
pd for portrage, cranage and lyghtrage of 11 fardells
and a trusse lls

pd and geven to the lyghtermen for rowyng a gaynst
the streme at nyght with a fardell and for taykyng

uppe of yt at the key 6d
pd for caying of a empty pype to the Ayle brewars 1d
pd for my boott hire for this shipping 7d
pd for my boot hire for shipping 3 hogges heddes of
bere in Richard Harwood 2d
pd for carying to the watter syde of a pipe with ayle
4d

pd for carying to the watter syde of a chist, 2
ferckynges with brawne and a hampper 4d
pd for portrage and cranage of the pipe with ayle and
the chist 4d
pd for my boott for shipping of the ayle Yd
pd for my boyett for shippynge of the hampper with
venyson in Perys Smeth of Flusshing 2d
pd for a lydd for the sand boxe ld

Total sum of all the costes 34s 242d
pd & quite

Not only are there payments for the expected
costs of binding up the fardells, the porterage,
cranage and lighterage charges, and the ‘cokkett’ or
sealed export permit obtained from the Customs
House, but also incidental expenses paid to the
porters for watching over four fardells while they
were at the waterside, and a gratuity given to the
mariners for saving a fardell from getting wet when
it was likely to rain. The fardells were taken to the
quay at Barrow by lighter, and rowed against the
stream. The incidental costs of carrying a chest, two
ferkins of brawn, a hamper of venison, three
hogsheads of beer and a pipe of ale were also
included in the costs. The references to Richard
Harwood and Perys Smeth refer to the ships of
these two masters. From elsewhere in the ‘Boke’ it
becomes evident that Harwood’s ship was the John
Baptist of London, and that Smeth’s unnamed
vessel was not used for carrying the fardells of cloth
to any of the marts even though it was used on this
occasion for carrying provisions. Other costs
sustained by Kytson included making sure that
cloths were in good condition before they were
shipped to the fairs. For this he employed the
services of two London shearmen, Harry James and
Matthew Sharpe. One entry reads, ‘delyvered to
Herry James shereman to wasshe & drye a whitte of

54 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

Wyllyam Adlam the younger the 14th day in
February 1534. Resaved the 3rd day in Marche
1534, 1 whitte as is above rehersed’, and a similar
entry was made in December 1536 for Harry James
to dry, fold and tack &c 2 whites of Richard Batte’s.

From Thomas Wasshington’s account for the
Sinxten mart of 1536 can be learned the gross profit
that Kytson reaped from his sales. Wasshington
recorded the sale of 859 cloths for £4,300 13s.
Flemish. At the exchange rate of 25 schellingen 6
groten for each pound sterling (the rate at which
Wasshington had had to borrow money in
Antwerp) the price of those 859 cloths, that had cost
Thomas Kytson £2,588 5s. 6d. sterling, was
equivalent to £3,235 6s. Sg. Flemish. The gross
profit that Wasshington gained for his master was
therefore £1,065 6s. 7g. Flemish or 32.9%

Typical of Wasshington’s entries that relate to
Wiltshire clothmen (names underlined) are:

Sold to Ullryght factor for the Pymmels &c

Item 152 whittes of John Clyyflodes fynest makyng of
£32 sterlyng the packe

Item 2 whittes of John Clyfflodes second makyng of
£3 14s the pece

Item 40 whittes of Wylliam Blackedonnes of £34 10s
sterlyng the packe

Item 10 whittes of Geffrey Whitacher of £34 the packe.
Total sum 204 whittes at £52 10s g the packe

£1071 Os 0g

To pay in redy monney £534 2s lg
To pay in the Colde Martt next commyng 1536

Sum £536 17s llg

Sold to Wylliam van Inmersell of Andwerppe &c

Item one fyne whitte of Thomas Bayles of £4 13s 4d
the pece at£7 Sum £7 0s 0g
Resaved be me Thomas Wasshyngton in silver & quit

Sold to Frans Gyles and George Kesselor of
Andwerppe &c
Item 90 whittes of John Lawrens of £30 sterlyng the
packe
Item 8 whittes of Thomas Joes of £3 10d sterlyng the
pece
Item one whitte of John Clyfflodes second makyng of
£3 16s sterlyng
Item one whitte of John Norrynton best makyng of
£3 the pece
Total sum 100 whittes at one with another £47 g the
pack Sum £470 Os Og
To pay in the Bawius Martt next commyng

Sum £235 0s 0g

To pay in the Colde Martt next commyng
Sum £235 0s Og

Each entry gave the sterling purchase price in
code (here in italics) and the sale price in Flemish
currency. — ponds groot, schellingen and groten.
Usually the buyers were not expected to pay for
their purchases until the next Bamis mart or the
Cold mart, some four or six months after the Sinxten
mart. However in the second example the single
fine white cloth of Thomas Bayley was paid for
when Wasshington sold it to van Inmersell. The
purchase price of this single cloth had been £4 13s.
4d. sterling, equivalent to £5 19s. Og. Flemish. In
this case the sale price of £7 Os. 0g. gave a profit of £1
ls. Og. or 17.6%. In the first example the purchase
price of all 204 whites was £665 16s. 0d. sterling, or
£848 17s. 11g. Flemish, which gave a profit of £222
2s. lg. or 26.2%. In the third example a gross
purchase price of £301 2s. 8d. sterling equivalent to
£383 18s. 11g. Flemish gave a profit of £86 ls. 1g. or
22.4%. These figures pose the question, why did
these cloths not reap the average profit obtained
from all the cloths at the Sinxten mart in 1536?

Thomas Kytson’s ‘Boke of Remembraunce’
records his dealings with his clothmen and others
for the decade before his death, and the export of
the cloths to the four seasonal markets in Flanders.
In totality Wiltshire clothmen came second to their
Somerset neighbours in supplying Kytson with the
broadcloths or ‘whites’ that contributed to
England’s main export in the Tudor period. Nearly
seventy Wiltshire ‘clothmen’ appear in Thomas
Kytson’s ‘Boke’ as producers of cloth. These men
and women, together with some of the carriers,
Kytson’s apprentices and factors, the London
shearmen, the masters of the little ships and the
purchasers in the annual marts are the named
people in the chain of commerce taking Wiltshire
cloths to the Continent. The names of the sheep
farmers, spinners and weavers, upon whose labour
all the cloth trade was based, remain unknown.

References and Notes

' Brett C.J., Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and
Natural History (PSANH). Vol. 143, pp29-56. Some
of the details of Thomas Kytson’s trading are
common to both Wiltshire and Somerset and are
repeated in this article.

? Dictionary of National Biography.

* Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of
Henry VII, Vol. 3 Part 1, p.503.

THOMAS KYTSON AND WILTSHIRE CLOTHMEN, 1529 -1539 55

+ Ibid. Vol. 3 Part 2, p.1052.

> Ibid. Vol. 3 Part 2, p.1530.

® [bid. Vol. 8, p.184.

” Ibid. Vol. 6, p.279.

§ For some other details of Thomas Kitson see Brett C. J.
loc. cit..

° Acts of Court of the Mercers’ Company, p.453.

0 Ibid, p.698.

"' Cambridge University Library, Hengrave Hall MS.78/1
(Goods shipped to the markets in the Low Countries
1512 -39) and MS.78/2 (The Boke of Remembraunce
1529).

" The first page is enscribed ‘The boke of Remembraunce
belongyng unto me Thomas Kytson of London
Mercer made the xx" daye in Septe[m]ber An° 1529”.

' Cambridge University Library, Hengrave Hall MS.78/4
(The Account of ye Synkeson martt, holden at
Andwerppe for my Master Syr T. Kytson, Knight &
Alderman of London by me Thomas Wasshyngton,
1536).

4 Baumann W-R. The Merchants Adventurers and the
Continental Cloth Trade, (Berlin, 1990), p.38.

'S Acts of Court of the Mercers’ Company, p.278.

‘6 “Penestone’ is the obsolete form of ‘penistone’, a kind of
coarse woollen cloth similar to a ‘kersey’.

” ‘Russet’ was a coarse woollen cloth of a reddish-brown,
grey or neutral colour.

'8 “Frieze” was a coarse woollen cloth with a nap, usually
on one side only.

'9 Cotton’ was a woollen cloth similar to a frieze.

20 ‘Kersey’ was a narrow woollen cloth which did not have
the completely felted surface of a broadcloth or
‘white’.

21 “Castlecomb’ was a woollen broadcloth of a red or white
colour made in or near Castle Combe.

2 VC. H. Wilts. Vol. 4, p.139.

2 Brett C.J. loc sit. pp.29-56.

*4 Carus-Wilson E. M. and Coleman O., England’s Export
Trade 1275-1547, (1963).

*> The various spellings of the clothmens’ names and
their places of residence, as given in the ‘Boke’, are
here rationalized.

26 Statutes at Large, 5 Henry VIII, c.3.

7 Ibid, 27 Henry VIII, c.13.

78 The other suppliers of ‘Castlecombes’ were Harry
Summers of Sodbury, William Bennet of
Stroudwater, Thomas May and Thomas Wulworth of
Wotton-under-Edge, Robert Payne of Burford,
Nicholas Touker and Nicholas Tayler of Kingswood,
Walter Osborne of Essington and John Woodward
and John Eskyns of Dursley.

”» The author suggests that ‘macer’, (from Latin macere to
make wet, to soak, to steep,) equates to ‘masher’ =
one who mashes malt in the beer-producing process.

*0 Acts of Court of the Mercers’ Company, pp.207, 226.

3! Ibid, pp.194, 200-2, 214, 223 etc..

» Tbid, p.194.

* Tbid, p.394. The danger from pirates had been reported

to the General Court of the Fellowship of Mercers in
1511, ‘there be dyvers shippes of warre of Skottes
uppon the See, whiche have taken certen Shippes of
Englonde laden with divers merchaundises, and cast
the Englismen over borde into the See’.

4 Ibid, p.195.

* Ibid, p.537.

*6 Ibid, p.568.

*7 When, as in the majority of cases, most of the cloths
were the long broadcloths, each fardell would have
weighed about 1 ton, corresponding to the
contemporary tonnage unit of a ‘tun’ or ‘tontight’.
When the fardells included many of the lighter and
shorter ‘cottons’, ‘penestones’ and ‘kersies’ the total
number of cloths in each fardell rose to over 50.

*’ The sign ff was used as an abbreviation for ‘fardell’.
The same sign was also used for ‘Flemish’.

* Kytson’s code was; 7 = 1,m = 2,f=3,S =4,norN =
5,C =6,B =7;p = 8,A = 9, ando = 0.

“© John Grantham’s penestones and Thomas Harforde’s
whites were never allocated identification numbers.

“VC. H. Wilts. Vol. 4, p.140.

*” The holland was purchased in units of the old Aune.
From these examples it is evident that | Aune = 1%
English elles or 2 yards 3 inches. See next note.

‘8 An English elle was 1% yards, or 5 quarters. Fractions of
an elle were quoted in quarters of a yard.

“4 “Master Edgar’ or “Thomas Edgar gentleman’ was an
occasional purchaser of goods from Thomas Kytson.
Edgar features in the London Court of Husting Roll
where he is described in 1537 as being ‘of “Baynors
Castle”, in the parish of St Andrew Castle Bayn[ar]d’:
Corporation of London Record Office, Court of
Husting: Calendar of Deeds & Wills: Vol. 6, ff. 121v
and i22r. Thomas Kytson, when he became an
Alderman in July 1534, was described as also being of
Castle Baynard: Beaven A.B., The Aldermen of the City
of London, Vol. 2, p.28. Kytson and Edgar were thus
neighbours. The author is grateful to James R.
Sewell, City Archivist, for providing these two
references.

*® Mann J. de L., The Cloth Industry in the West of England
1640 to 1880, (1987), pp.319, 321. Although the
figures quoted by Mann relate to a period later than
the Tudor era, they may be justified in being used in
making the approximate calculations of Roger
Tanner’s usage of olive oil.

46 Other types of canvas dealt with by Kytson were
‘Normandy’ and ‘vettery’. The canvas was destined
to be used for various domestic uses such as table
cloths, linings for doublets and kirtles, sheets and
mattress covers, aprons for ‘the sculyons & ye mayde’
and saddle cloths, besides being used for packing
goods for shipment.

47 Other types of fustian were ‘Osbornes’, ‘beverne’ and
‘Puryynges’.

48 John Baker’s name occurs in A List of the Recorders of the
City of London from 1298-1850 extracted from the

56 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

records of the Corporation of the City of London and
printed by direction of the Court of Aldermen in
1850. The author is grateful to James R. Sewell, City
Archivist, for this information.

” Acts of Court of the Mercers’ Company, p702.

*! Public Record Office (PRO) PROB 11/27, the will of
‘Richard Bathe alias Richard Wheteacre’ was made
on 20 May 1538 and probate was granted on 24 July
1538.

* [bid. Richard Bathe made ‘my brother Aldem Lambe’
one of two overseers of his will. An Aldelm Lambe of
East Coulston is mentioned in VC.H. Wilts. Vol.8,
pp.235-7.

3 Ibid.

* Ramsay G. D., Wiltshire Woollen Industry. p.54-7.

> Wiltshire Notes & Queries. Vol. 8, p.541.

°° Richard’s sons were John, Robert, Aldelm, Henry and
Richard: PRO PROB 11/27.

” Statutes at Large, 17 Henry VIII, cap.12.

°’ Where other entries in the ‘Boke’ are crossed out, and
intended not to be part of the record, they are marked
‘vacat’ in the margin (i. e. null and void).

Appendix 1 Extracts from Kytson’s
‘Boke of Remembraunce’

Extracts from the ‘Boke of Remembraunce’ relating to
Wiltshire, for the Exchequer Year 1536 to 1537 (Michaelmas to
Michaelmas).

Original Latin and French words have been translated.
Abbreviated text has been expanded to the clerks’ usual spelling.
Arabic numerals originally in code are here decoded and placed
in italics, and names relating to Wiltshire are in bold text. Some
punctuation has been added.

Bought of Edward Lanckforthe [7 October 1536]
Item 10 whites at £37 at £31 the pack. Sum £31

Bought of John Smethe of Viase 7 October 1536

Item 20 whites at £30 at £30 the pack Sum £60
Resaved 26 October 1536 4 whites

Memorandum that there ys to resave of this 20 whites 4
whites he hayth promised to deliver be twyxt this and
Alhallowtide next and that thay shall be of as good
spynnyng, lenth and maykyng as thes 16 a fore resaved
To pay in redy mony £30
To pay at Candelmas next Sum £20

Bought of Thomas Longe
Item 3 fynne whites at £3 J/s. Sum £10 13s 0d
Bought of Robert a bridge of Yford in Wilshire
Item 10 whites at £32 13s 4d at £32 13s 4d £32 13s 4d

Bought of John Bennett of Warmister by the handes of

Robert Stokes 13 October 1536

Item 40 whites at £30 at £30 the packe save 20s over in all.
Sum [blank]

Memorandum that there ys to resave of thes 40 whites 5

whites he haith promysed and all that he maikes be twyxt

this & Alhallowtide next and that thay shalbe of as good

woolle, lenthe, spynnyng and maykyng as this 35 afore

resavid.

Resaved 10 November 1536 5 whites

To pay in redy mony £54
To pay at Cristimas next. Sum £25
To pay at Ester next in 1537. Sum £25

Bought of Thomas Davy of Harnyngsham in Wilsher
[October 1536]
Item 15 whites at £27 at £27 the packe. Sum £40 10s 0d

Item mor 2 whites at 54s the pece £5 8s 0d
Item more the first day December 3 whites £8 2s
Total sum £54

Bought of John Ussher of Warmister in Wilshire 20
October 1536

Item 10 whites at £37 at £31 the packe. Sum
Resaved 30 October 1536 5 whites

£31 Os 0d

Bought of William Holbroke of Salisbery 21 October
1536
Item 5 whites at £10 5s at £10 5s the half pack. Sum £10 5s

Bought of Richard Addams of Laycocke in Wilshere 28

October 1536

Item 8 whites at £3 6s the clothe. Sum £26 8s 0d

Item 2 whites at £2 19s 4d. Sum £5 18s 8d
Sum £32 6s 8d paid

Memorandum that he haith promysed my Master that he

shall have 2 clothes mo be twyxt this and Alhallowtide

next & that thay shall be of as good wolle, spynnyng &

mayking as the best of thes 8 a for resaved

Resaved 2 December 1536 2 whites

Bought of John Weste of Turbrig in Wilshere 11
Novemebr 1536

Item 5 whites at £/6 at £16 half pack. Sum £16 paid
The shipping by the grace of God to the Cold Marte in
AD 1536

A fardell no J in the John Baptist of Lee master John
Goodlad

Item 32 whites no | of Richard Battes

Item 8 penystones of Granthams

A fardell no 2 in the Savior of London master under God
Richard Rede

Item 32 whites no 2 of John Bennetes

Item 8 penystones of Granthams

THOMAS KYTSON AND WILTSHIRE CLOTHMEN, 1529 -1539 ay

A fardell no 3 in the Antonye of Sandwiche master under
God John Leche

Item 12 whites no 3 of John Smethes

Item 20 whites no 4 of John Rawlins

Item 6 penystones of Granthams

A fardell no 4 in the Margett of Hulle master under God
Almon Binckes

Item 27 whites no 1 of Richard Battes

Item 3 fyne whites of T[homas] Long

Item 2 whites no 3 of John Smethes

Item 6 penystones of Granthams

A fardell no 6 in the Peter of London master under God
Christofer Rawlins

Item 10 whites no 6 of Edward Lanckeford

Item 10 whites no 7 of Robert Bridges

Item 10 whites no 8 of William Bians

Item 2 whites no 2 of John Bennettes

Item 6 penystones of Granthams

A fardell no 7 in the Mary Fortune of Ypswytche master
under God Simond Jacobs

Item 12 castelcomes no 9 of Robert Paynes

Item 10 whites no 10 of John Knyghtes

Item 10 whites no 11 of Aldem Lambe

Item 6 penystones of Granthams

A fardell no 8 in the Christofer of Meltenshore master
Richard Rede

Item 20 whites no 12 of William Blacdons

Item 3 whites no 11 of Aldem Lambe

Item 10 whites no 0 of Thomas Harefordes

Item 5 penystones of Granthams

A fardell no 9 in the Margett of Hulle master under God
Almon Binckes

Item 20 whites no 13 of Mistress Gastrodes

Item 10 whites no 14 of Edward Banwells

Item 2 castelcomes no 9 of Robert Paynes

Item 6 penystones of Granthams

A fardell no 13 in the Mary Fortune of Ipswytche master
under Simond Jacobe

Item 20 whites no 16 of Richard Cooke

Item 10 whites no 17 of John Usshers

Item 2 whites no 3 of John Smethes

Item 1 white of William Holbroke wrapper

Item 4 penystones of Granthams

A fardell no 14 in the My/cJhell of London master under
‘God Thomas Gygges

Item 15 whites no 18 of William Baxter coursse

Item 15 whites no 19 of Thomas Davy

Item 2 whites no 15 of Clevelodes seconds

Item | white of William Holbroke wrapper

Item 4 penystones of Granthams

A fardell no 16 in the My/cJhell of Wamothe master under
God Harry Browne

Item 10 whites no 21 of Harry Davison

Item 20 whites no 22 of J[ohn] Lawrens

Item 2 whites no 15 of Clevelodes seconds

Item 1 white of William Holbroke wrapper

Item 4 penystones of Granthams

A fardell no 19 in the George of London master under God
Robert Gansse

Item 26 whites no 15 of Clevelodes fine

Item 5 whites no 24 of John West

Item 1 white no 23 of mastress Blacdons

Item 1 white of John Clevelodes wrapper

Item 4 penystones of Granth[am]s

A fardell no 20 in the Peter of London master Christofer
Rawlins

Item 7 whites no 11 of Aldam Lambes

Item 5 whites no 17 of John Ussher

Item 10 whites no 25 of Thomas Foster

Item 5 whites no 21 of Harry Davison

Item 4 whites no 3 of John Smethes

Item 1 white no 23 of mastress Blacdons

Item 1 white of John Clevelodes secondes wrapper

Item 4 penystones of Granth[am]s

A fardell no 2/ in the Peter of London master under God
Richard Holmes

Item 25 whites no 22 of J[ohn] Law[re]nes

Item 6 whites no 2 of John Bennettes

Item | white no 26 of Richard Addams

Item | white of John Clevelodes wrapper

Item 4 penystones of Granth[am]s

A fardell no 22 in the Tiinite of London master under God
Robert White

Item 32 whites no | of Richard Battes

Item 1 white of J[ohn] Clevelodes second

Item 4 penystones of Granth[am]s

A fardell no 23 in the John Baptist of Lee master under
God Richard Polter

Item 29 whites no 1 of Richard Battes

Item 3 whites no 26 Richard Addams

Item 6 penystones of J[ohn] Gr[antham] wrappers

A fardell no 26 in the James of London master under God
William Smallis

Item 32 whites no 4 of John Rawlins

Item 6 penystones of Granthams

A fardell no 27 in the Peter of London master under God
Richard Holmes

Item 20 castelcomes no 27 of N[icholas] Taylers

Item 8 whites no 4 of John Rawlins

Item 4 whites no 0 of Thomas Harefedes

Item 6 penystones of J[ohn] Granthams

58 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

A fardell no 28 in the Tiinite of Lee master under God
Robert Ryngland

Item 8 whites no 20 of T[homas] Pawmer fine

Item 9 whites no 12 of William Blacdons

Item 5 whites no 14 of Edward Banwell

Item 5 whites no 10 of John Knyghtes

Item 2 whites no 26 of Richard Addams

Item 3 whites of Thomas Harefordes

Item 6 penystones of Granthams

A fardell no 29 in the John Evangelist of Tastocke master
under God John Powell

Item 32 whites no 28 of John Norintons

Item 1 white of Thomas Harefordes wrapper

Item 4 penystones of Granthams

A fardell no 30 in the John Evangelist of Tastocke master
under God John Powell

Item 15 whites no 28 of John Norintons

Item 8 whites no 18 of [William] Baxters

Item 4 whites no 26 of Richard Addams

Item 1 white no 15 of Clevelodes second

Item 4 whites no 0 Thomas Har[efor]|des

Item 5 penystones of Granthams

A fardell no 3/7 in the Christofer of Alborowe master under
God Bennett Bartram

Item 13 whites no 28 of John Norintons

Item 13 castelcomes no 29 of Walter Osbornes

Item 6 castelcomes no 30 of William Coldwell

Item 1 castelcome no 30 of Coldwell fine

Item 1 white cowsse of Norintons wrapper

Item 5 penystones of Granthams

A fardell no 32 in the My/cJhell of London master under
God Thomas Gygges

Item 32 whites no 31 of Thomas Aslockes

Item 1 white Norintons cowrse

Item 4 penystones of Granthams

A fardell no 33 in the George of London master under God
Robert Gansse

Item 28 whites no | of Richard Battes

Item 3 whites no 5 of Leonard Andles

Item | castelcome no 30 of Coldwell

Item 1 white of Mastress Blacdons course

Item 4 penystones of Granth[am]s

A fardell no 35 in the Peter of London master Christofer
Rawlins

Item 20 whites no 4 of John Rawlins

Item 10 whites no 22 of John Lawrens

Item 2 whites no 20 of Palmers fine

Item | white of Mastress Blacdons corse wrapper

Item 4 penystones of Granthams

A fardell no 36 in the Mi[cJhell of Wamothe master under

god Harry Browne

Item 14 whites no 23 of Mastress Blacdons

Item 3 whites no 21 of Harry Davison

Item 5 whites no 20 of T[homas] Palmer 7

Item 5 whites no 14 of [Edward] Banwell

Item 5 whites no 10 of J[ohn] Knyghtes

Item 2 whites of Mastress Blacdons co[r]se wrapper
Item 1 penystone of Granthams

A fardell no 37 in the Mary Anne of Berkelsay master
under God John Ayre

Item 9 whites no 12 of William Blacdons

Item 5 whites no 19 of Thomas Davis

Item 10 whites no 11 of Aldam Lambes

Item 8 whites no 3lof T[homas] Ashlocke

Item 2 whites of J[ohn] Norintons wrapper

Item | penystone of Granthams

A fardell no 39 in the Thomas Sonday of Birkylsay master
under God John Fresell

Item 2 whites no 26 of Richard Addams

Item 7 whites no 18 of William Baxters

Item 1 white no 32 of Robert Chapman f[ine]
Item 2 whites no | of Richard Battes

Item | white no 34 of Robert Stylle fine

Item 2 whites no 35 of Richard Chapman f[ine]
Item | white no 9 of Robert Paynes

Item 3 whites no 36 of Richard Powell

Item 2 whites no 15 of J[ohn] Clevelod

Item | white no 28 of J[ohn] Norinton

Item 7 penystones of Thomas Fille

A Item in the [blank]
Item 2 losse whites no 12 of William Blacdons

Memorandum that ther ys spent in Canvas this shippyng
to the Cold Marte into 1535 [sic]

Item 247 elles of canvas ffor 13 hedis and sydes
delyvered in this Cold Marte 1536

Bought of John Norinton of the Viesse 23 November
1536

Item 60 whites at £28 at £28 the pack. Sum _—£168 Os 0d
Item 5 whites at £10 the halfe pack. Sum £10 Os Od

Total sum £178
paid in redy mony £70 Os 0d
to pay in redy mony £78 Os 0d
to pay at Cristemas next Sum £30 Os 0d

Bought of Thomas Aslocke of [Haytesbury] 28
November 1536

Item 40 whites at £29 15s the pack. Sum £119 0s 0d
To pay in redy mony £40 0s Od
To pay at myd Lent £40 0s 0d
To pay at mydsomer next 1537 £30 0s 0d

Memorandum that there ys to resave of the said 40 whites
one white whiche he haith promised to be delyvered
within this 3 days

THOMAS KYTSON AND WILTSHIRE CLOTHMEN, 1529 -1539 59

Resaved the first day of December 1536 1 white

Delyvered to Harry James shereman the first day of
December 1536

Item 2 whites of Richard Battes to dry, fold and tack &c
Resaved 3 December 1536

Bought of Richard Batte 26 January 1536[7]
Item 40 whites at £37 15s at £31 15s
of the which 40 ther was 1 fawty clothe which was
delyvered unto Roger Patyens 18 Aprel 1537
Rest net 39
Resaved 27 Aprill 1537 1 white
Resaved the same day 40 whites at £31 the pack. Sum
£124
Resaved 28 Aprell 1537 Item 1 fyne whitte at £4 6s 8d
Resaved 17 Maye 1537 10 whites at £31
Total sum £282

Bought of William Blacden in Wyltshere 13 February
1536[7]

Item 12 whittes at £33 6s Sd

Resaved 8 March 1536[7] 4 whites

Resaved 12 Aprill 1537 14 whites

Resaved 12 Maye 1537 7 whites

Resaved 18 Maye 1537 3 whites

Sum 40 whyttes at £33 13s 4d the pack

Sum £133 6s 8d
To paye in hande £66 13s 4d
To paye the 14 dayes
after Haloutyd 1537 £66 13s 4d

Bought of George Rawlyns of Warminster 3 March
1536[7]

Item 10 whites at £28 13s 4d £28 13s 4d
Item Resaved 17 March 1537 [sic] 5 whyttes at £14 6s 8d
the halff packe. £14 6s 8d

Bought of Richard Crosse of Eyrlestocke in Wilsher 23
March 1536[7]
Item 10 whites at £30 at £30 the packe. Sum £30

Bought of Rychard Mydelcott of the paryshe of
Busshopstow in Wylsher 24 March 1536[7]
Item 10 whittes at £29 13s 4d. £29 13s 4d
Bought of John Smeth of the Viase 27 Aprill 1537

Item 30 whites at £30 the packe and 7s 6d over in all. Sum

£90 7s 6d
Resaved by the handes of T[homas] Clevelode for John
Smythe 17 May 1537 3 whites at £3. Sum £9
23 whites at £31. Sum £71 6s
10 whites at £28 1s 6d Sum £99 7s 6d

Bought of Jhon Lawrans of Warmister 11 May 1537

Item 25 whites at £29 the packe. Sum £72 10s
Sum £72 10s

Memorandum thatt John Lawrens hathe promyssed to

deliver all the Clothes thatt he shall macke between thys
and shyppyng next

Bought of Thomas Baylyffe in Wylsher 12 Maye 1537
Item 20 whittes at £36 13s 4d
Item 10 whites at £33 6s 8d £106 13s 4d
Sum £106 13s 4d paid
Resaved 18 Maye 1537 20 whites fine payable at

Mydsomer & at My[c]helmas next

Bought of John Duffel of Westbere under the planne 17

Maye 1537

Item 10 whyttes at £32 at £32 the packe. £32
Sum £32

Bought of John Adlam of Wylsher 17 Maye 1537
Item 20 whyttes at £32 at £32 the packe.
£64 Os Od Sum £64

Bought of Robart Adlam in Wylsher 17 Maye 1537
Item 40 whyttes at £32 the packe. £128

The shipping by the grace of God to the Synxson Marte
holden in [Antwerp] AD 1537

A fardell no / in the George of London master under god
Richard Walgrave

Item 32 whites no 1 of Richard Battes

Item 7 penystones of John Granth[am]s

A fardell no 7 in the Mary My/cJhell of Birkilsay master
under God Richard Dalton

Item 19 whites no 2 of John Clev[el]odes

Item 13 whites no 3 of William Blacdons

Item 6 penystons of John Granth[am]s

A fardell no 8 in the Anne Fortune of Calles master under
God Robert Johnson

Item 12 whites no 3 of William Blacdons

Item 20 whites no 4 of John Smeths

Item 6 penystons of John Granth[am]s

A fardell no 10 in the Tiinite Kydman master under God
William Rogers

Item 32 whites no 1| of Richard Battes

Item 6 penystons of John Granth[am]s

A fardell no 73 in the Peter of London master under God
William Goodwyn

Item 10 whites no 7 of John Smeths C[oarse]

Item 10 whites no 8 of George Rawlins

Item 10 whites no 9 of Richard Crosses

Item 2 whites no 10 of John Gastreds fine

Item 9 penystons of Granth[am]s wrappers

A fardell no 14 in the Mary MifcJhell of Birkylsay master
Richard Dalton
Item 10 whites no 11 of John Chapmans

60 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

Item 10 whites no 12 of William Byams

Item 10 whites no 13 of Richard Middelcotts
Item | white no 14 of Robert Stills

Item | white no 3 of William Blacdons

Item 9 penystons of Granth[am]s

A fardell no 15 in the Peter of London master under God
William Goodwyn

Item 15 whites no 1 of Richard Battes

Item 9 whites no 6 of Mores Flewell[an]s

Item 4 whites no 3 of William Blacdons

Item 4 castlecoms no 5 of Nicholas Taylors

Item 9 penystons of Granth[am]s

A fardell no 18 in the Peter of London master under God
William Goodwyn

Item 20 whites no 18 of Harry Davisons

Item 10 whites no 19 of T[homas] Bayles

Item 2 whites no 3 of William Blacdons

Item 10 penystons of John Granth[am]s

A fardell no 20 in the Mary of London master under God
Thomas Dayll

Item 20 whites no 23 of [Thomas] Baleys fine

Item 3 whyttes no 24 of Rychard Dyers fyne

Item 4 castlecomes no 25 of John Easkyngs

Item 5 whyttes no 3 of William Blackdons

Item 10 penystons of Granthans wrappers

A fardell no 22 in the Barbor of Chechester
master under God Richard Banwell

Item 12 whites no 6 of Mores Fluellen
Item 10 whites no 1 of Rychard Battes
Item 10 whites no 29 of Jhone Duffells
Item 10 penystons of Jnone Granthams

A fardell no 24 in the Mary of London master under God
John Banwyn

Item 32 whittes no 30 of Robert Adlams

Item 1 corsse whit of Jaone Chapman wraper

Item 4 penystons of Jnone Granthams

A fardell no 25 in the Trinite of London master under God
Richard Holmes

Item 20 whites no 31 of Wittiam Robart Adlames

Item 8 whites no 30 of Rebart John Adlames

Item 3 whites no 6 of Morres Fluellen

Item 1 whit no 18 of Harry Davysones

Item 1 whitt of Juaone Chapman wraper

Item 4 penystons of Jnone Granthams

A fardell no 28 in the Mawdelyn of London master under
God Richard Rede

Item 2 whites no 18 of Hary Davisons

Item 10 whites no 35 of T Pawm[er]s fine

Item 10 whites no 36 of T Pawmers seco[n]ds

Item 5 whites no 37 of John Grastreds

Item 5 whites no 8 of George Rawlins

Item 7 penystons of Granth[am]s wrappers
Item | white of John Chapmans wrappers

A fardell no 29 in the Leonerd of Walderswyk master
under God Thomas Crakeman

Item 20 whites no 23 of T[homas] Bayley

Item 9 whites no 6 of [Mores] Flewellens

Item 3 whites no 4 of [John] Smeths fine

Item 12 penystons of Granth[am]s wrappers

A fardell no 30 in the Trinite of London master under God
Richard Holmes

Item 10 whites no 11 of John Chapmans

Item 3 whites no 14 of Robert Stylle fine

Item | white no 38 of William Biams fine
Item | white no 18 of Harry Davisons

Item | white no | of Richard Battes

Item 5 whites of Thomas Harefordes

Item 3 whites no 39 of Awen Shankey

Item 3 whites no 3 of William Blacdons

Item 3 whites no 40 of John Clevelodes

Item 1 white no 22 of John Peremans

Item 1 white no 41 of Richard Battes for store
Item 8 penystones of Granth[am]s wrappers

Appendix 2 Makers’ Marks of
Wiltshire Clothmen

21 October 1535
William Stumpe
of Malmesbury

blew

29 October 1535
William Stumpe
of Malmesbury

blew

1 September 1536
John Lawrence

of Warminster murray

22 September 1536

William Blackdon rede

Bs 6+ Hc

THOMAS KYTSON AND WILTSHIRE CLOTHMEN, 1529 -1539

22 September 1536
John Knyght
of Bishopstrowe

22 September 1536
Aldhelm Lambe
of East Coulston

13 October 1536
John Bennett
of Warminster

20 October 1536
John Usher
of Warminster

28 October 1536
John Norrington
of Devizes

28 October 1536
unknown

28 October 1536
Richard Adams
of Lacock

2 November 1536
Edward Banwell
of Westbury

11 November 1536
John West
of Trowbridge

i
k
x
sg
a
i
Ww
~
."

murray

blewe

murray

rede

blewe

murrey

rede

28 November 1536
Thomas Ashelocke
of Heytesbury

9 March 1537/8
John Lyversidge
of Kilmington

27 April 1537
John Smethe
of Devizes

27 June 1538

Alexander Langford

the younger
of Trowbridge

23 August 1538
Richard Adams
of Laycock

23 August 1538
Roger Winslow
of Keevil

29 August 1538
William Allen
of Calne

6 September 1538
Richard Bathe
of Edington

18 September 1538
William Adlam
the elder

of Westbury

61
rede
| | rede
: L murray
¢ | | blewe
= om
m[ono]g[ram]
rede & the rest
rede & blewe
: blewe
(e rede

62 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE |

10 October 1538
Aldhelm Lambe
of East Coulston

18 October 1538
Alexander Langford
the elder

of Trowbridge

19 November 1538
the wife of Richard Bathe
of Edington [ 6

the strypes yallow & the letters rede

murray [murrey] = the colour of the mulberry, purple-
red

Appendix 3 Weights, Measures and
Currency

Glossary of some words used in Kytson’s ‘Boke of
Remembraunce’. The abbreviations or spellings used by Kytson
and his clerks are in parentheses.

BASIC UNITS OF LENGTH
Yard (yd) 3 feet = 36 inches
Quarter (q or qtr) 9 inches

BASIC UNITS OF WEIGHT
Ton 20 hundredweights (C, hundreth)

Hundredweight 4 quarters (qt’)

Quarter 28 Avoirdupois pounds (Ib)
ALE, BEER, OIL and WINE

Barrel 36 gallons

Hogshead 54 gallons

Pipe 126 gallons

Tun (tonne) 252 gallons

CLOTH
English ell 45 inches = 1% yards (yds) = 5

quarters (q or qt’)

Flemish ell 27 inches

French ell 54 inches

Aune (An,) 1? English ells = 2 yards 3 inches
CURRENCY
English

Pound sterling (li) 20 shillings sterling (s)

Shilling 12 pence sterling (d)
Noble 6s 8d
Flemish
Pond groot 20 schellingen Flemish (s ff,)

Schellingen Flemish 12 groten Flemish (g ff, )
(The exchange rate in the mid-1530s fluctuated about 26
schellingen Flemish to 20 shillings sterling)

HOPS
Sack indeterminate, but usually about 3
hundredweight
PEPPER
Bale about 2 hundredweight
TIN
Block about 3 hundredweight
WOAD
Bale 2 Balletts
Ballett about 7 quarters (qt’) = about 196

pounds (Ib)

Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History Magazine, vol. 97 (2004), pp. 63-77

Neolithic of the Wylye Valley 1: Millennium Re-
investigation of the Corton Long Barrow,

ST 9308 4034

by Michael 7. Allen and Fulie Gardiner

with a contribution by Rob Scaife

Millennium events in the parish of Boyton included an archaeology day, led by the writers, during which a visit was
made to the Corton (Boyton 1) Long Barrow. This visit prompted a limited piece of research on this monument which
had not been investigated since 1804. Augering through the edge of the barrow and beyond its obvious extent encountered
a buried soil beneath the mound and provided the first recorded evidence for one of the flanking ditches. Limited
description and analysis were undertaken and a magnetic susceptibility profile constructed. Preserved land snails and
pollen from the buried Neolithic land surface indicated clearance of ancient woodland prior to construction, but not for
this monument. Documentary evidence revealed an interesting history of antiquarian research and an unexpected error
in the recording or transcription of Mr Cunnington’s survey measurements.

In 1801 Mr (Aylmer Bourke) Lambert of Boyton
House, Boyton, in the Wylye Valley issued an
invitation to Mr William Cunnington of
Heytesbury to ‘open every barrow upon his
property’ (Cunnington 1975, 16). One of the first
barrows Cunnington opened in that same year was
the Corton Long Barrow (Boyton 1, NMR No ST
94 SW 37) situated in Tenant Field, Barrow Hill
above the village of Corton. No records of that
opening have been found but, on revisiting the
barrow in 1804 (11-12 September), Cunnington
concluded that his earlier excavation must have
recovered a secondary burial, as the presence of a
large sarsen boulder and ‘eight skeletons lying
promiscuously in various directions’ on the old
ground surface (Hoare 1812, 102) in the later (1804)
excavation indicated that the monument was a
Neolithic long barrow (Thurnam 1869, 180).

The barrow (SM12341) overlooks the Wylye
from its position on the chalk slopes of the southern
side of the valley at a height of about 140 m OD
(Figure 1). It is false-crested, more than 12 km

from the summit of a convex, inverted bowl-shaped
Middle Chalk slope. This slope descends below the
barrow and then drops suddenly via a steep ancient
river cliff (‘Landfall’) into the Wylye Valley (Figure
lc). Topographically, therefore, the barrow is
carefully and specifically sited. From it, splendid
views are afforded of the valley floor and of chalk
spurs from Battlesbury to the west, down through
Heytesbury, Knook, and Codford with Salisbury
Plain behind. The barrow itself is not well viewed
from the upslope, southern side of Corton or from
Boyton Down. Only limited views of it are possible
along the valley side and, because of the steep
convex slope on which it is sited, it becomes
invisible from only metres downslope to the north.
It is clearly sited to look over, and to be seen on the
skyline from, the Wylye Valley itself. It is less
spectacularly displayed towards, but is nevertheless
clearly visible from, the northern valley sides of the
Wylye (from Upton Lovell and Codford Downs).
The valley floor itself, unusually, supports at least
one long barrow at Sherrington (Sherrington 1).

Redroof, Green Road, Codford St Peter, Warminster BA12 ONW

64 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

Warminster
)

Heytesbury

Swindon @

Marlborough
@

@ Devizes
© Trowbridge

@
Salisbury

7)
ry, @ Codford
e

@ Long barrow
Land over 125m |.
Built up area

Corton Hill

Corton Long Barrow

Landfall

Fig. 1 Location plan and the Wylye valley profile

SURVEY

When Wm Cunnington visited the barrow in 1804
he recorded it as being aligned exactly east-west
but noted that it seemed to comprise two conical
mounds which he initially thought to be two
adjacent round barrows. His investigations in 1801
had found a ‘rude urn, containing burnt human
bones, on the west end marked A’ (Figure 2a;
Lambert 1806, plate xvi, fig. 4) which tended to
confirm these suspicions. Cunnington surveyed the

barrow and, in a letter to Lambert (14 September
1804), who communicated it to the Society of
Antiquaries on 7 February 1805 (Lambert 1806,
338-446), he records a long barrow 216 feet (c. 65.8
m) long and 25 ft (c. 7.6 m) wide at its east end, its
highest elevation being 9 ft (c. 2.7 m) above the
adjoining ground level. These measurements and,
in fact, much of the content of Cunnington’s letter
to Lambert are repeated by Colt Hoare in Ancient
Wiltshire (Hoare 1812, 102).

NEOLITHIC OF THE WYLYE VALLEY 1: CORTON LONG BARROW 65

Profile June 2000
F .

January 2001

Fig. 2 a) Crocker’s sketch of the barrow in 1804 for Colt Hoare from Archaeologia XV, plate xvi, fig. 4, b) barrow profile as
surveyed 2000, and c) photograph of the barrow looking north across the Wylye Valley. See text for explanation.

Even at that early date Colt Hoare stated that
‘the plough has diminished its size on both sides,
-and at the east end’. Cunnington’s record of its
dimensions, reiterated by Colt Hoare, is now
established in the archaeological literature (Ashbee
1970, 167; Kinnes 1992, 10; VCH 1957, 138; Wilts
County SMR). However, in 1914, Maud Cunning-
ton records the barrow as being only 120 ft (c. 36.6
m) long and attributes the loss of 100 ft in as many

years to ploughing (Cunnington 1914). It seems
hard to reconcile an average loss of 1 ft (0.3 m) per
year for 100 years as a result of non-mechanised, or
even mechanised, ploughing, especially since the
general shape of the barrow remains largely
unchanged from Wm Cunnington’s original sketch
of 1804 to the present day (compare Figures 2a, b &
c). Another change noted by Maud Cunnington was
that, ‘There are beech trees of considerable age

66 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

growing on the barrow’ (1914, 386-7) whereas, the
1804 sketch (Figure 2a, Lambert 1806, 15, plate xvi,
fig. 4) shows it treeless.

A re-survey of the barrow in June 2000 provides
a plan and profile that matches William
Cunnington’s description and sketch but more
accurately reflects the measurements taken by
Maud Cunnington and published in 1913. Our
survey (Figure 3) indicates that the barrow cannot
have exceeded much more than 35 m in 1804, that
is, about one hundred and sixteen feet. Recording a
comparable width at the eastern end is more
difficult as it is uncertain where the earlier
measurements were likely to have been taken, and
our survey records a width nearer 15 m (50 ft). The
height of 9 ft (c. 2.7 m) recorded in 1804 is not far
different from the 2.26 m (7% feet) we measured in
June 2000, 188 years later. From this we can only
conclude that there was an error in the citation of
William Cunnington’s original work. Rather than
suggesting an umncharacteristically inaccurate
measurement on his part, it seems likely that
either a transposition of the first two numbers
(126 to 216 ft), or an incorrect reading of the field
note as 216 rather than 116 ft occurred and went
unnoticed.

The plan (Figure 3a; Eagles and Field
forthcoming, fig. 4) shows an eroded ovoid barrow,
probably formerly wedge-shaped (Eagles and Field
forthcoming). Although field survey did not record
flanking ditches, augering (see below) proved the
existence of these previously unrecorded features.
The ditches were however recorded by the
RCHME/Engish Heritage survey, and these have
been added to our plan (after Eagles and Field
forthcoming, fig 4).

Our survey also demonstrates that the barrow is
situated at the crest of the break in slope of a north-
facing valley side (Figures 1 & 3b). Its location
clearly faces the monument into the view of the
Wylye Valley. On the southern side the natural
chalk is exposed showing that the upslope side of
the mound has, in antiquity, been eroded creating a
bench, leaving the old land surface on this raised
bench nearly 0.2 m above the present ground
surface.

W. Cunnington M.Cunnington Allen&Gardner

1804 1914 2000
width 25ft 7.6m): = - SO ft 15.2m
length 216ft 65.8m 120ft 366m 116ft 35.5m
height 9 ft 24m" 3 - 72 ft 2.26m

THE BARROW

The results of Cunnington’s excavation in 1804
made him re-evaluate the monument, whereupon
he concluded that it was a regular long barrow, its
double-barrow form created by a division in the
centre probably due to ‘the removal of earth from
that spot by farmers’ (Hoare 1812, 102; Lambert
1806, 339). His excavation at the extreme eastern
end of Corton Long Barrow revealed seven adults
and one child lying on the ‘floor of the barrow,
between two excavations in the native soil, of an
oval form’ (Hoare 1812, 102). The oval pits were cut
through the buried soil on which the skeletons lay
and into the chalk. They were about 4 ft long (c.1.2
m) and 2% ft deep (c. 0.76 m). Both the oval gullies
or pits and the burials were sealed beneath a cairn
(‘pyramid’) of flints and stone 20 ft by 10 ft (6.1 m
x 3 m) in extent which seems to have been capped
by a large stone. The capping stone, presumably a
sarsen, was so large it required three men to lift it
out. There is no record of its whereabouts and it
was presumably backfilled into the mound, or
removed to Cunnington’s residence in Heytesbury.
Ashbee (1970, 52) considers this description to fit
that of a, probably partially collapsed, mortuary
enclosure.

THE MILLENNIUM VISIT

In March 2000 the present authors were invited by
the parishioners of Boyton to lead an archaeology
day as part of the parish’s millennium
celebrations. The day began with introductory
talks on the archaeology of the Wylye Valley and
the secrets and splendours of environmental
archaeology and was followed by a visit to the
Corton Long Barrow, today the most obvious
prehistoric site in the neighbourhood. There we
undertook some very limited fieldwork in order to
demonstrate to the thirty or so good souls who had
joined us the effectiveness of minimally intrusive
augering in recovering and recording ‘hidden’
archaeological information and to emphasise the
significance and fragility of one of the
archaeological sites on their doorstep. Our
primary archaeological aim was to record the
presence and nature of the buried soil beneath the
mound and to sample it for land snails and pollen.
We hoped to be able to define something of the
environmental history and also to gain some

NEOLITHIC OF THE WYLYE VALLEY 1: CORTON LONG BARROW 67

auger hole 4
0 50 x10 SVKg

N depthem 9g ~
i] ! ;
ee rae | if ! / sad i:
aoa t - ‘ 9e 5 x

Z/priidl i en oe

100 ‘. ; as

TON @ AY
es ee

SEBIN 7p TAR SE

ul ee

ay : ssa .
ee a gee le) Calla ly opine ccnarventtioe

spac yi wiheneres
/ a a 10 20m

2 a
2

1 s

0 WEES diten

Fig. 3 a) Plan of the barrow showing auger locations and inset with the soil profile and magnetic susceptibility signature, note
ditches added later from RCHME survey (Eagles and Field forthcoming, fig 4), and b) North-South profile of the mound

68 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

indication of the current state of preservation of
the monument.

Augering

Very limited archaeological intervention (limited
and pinpointed hand augering and excavation) into
barrows in Cranborne Chase, by Dr French and
ourselves (French et al. 2000), has proven to be of
great value. Augering can determine the presence,
depth, nature and extent of buried soils under such
monuments and the presence of other features
within and around the mounds. This information is
of use in the interpretation of the construction
sequences of monuments, in outlining their palaeo-
environmental potential, and in _ providing
information about the survival and integrity of
various elements of the monuments to inform
English Heritage and relevant curatorial bodies.
On this basis, a small augering programme was
conducted with a 25 mm diameter screw auger and
a 40 mm diameter dutch soil auger. Five small
auger holes and one natural exposure (Appendix 1)
were examined (Figure 3).

Augering through the low, western end of the
barrow revealed a well preserved chalk mound
comprised of loose blocky chalk, obviously hewn
from chalk quarry pits or ditches. There is no
mention by William Cunnington, Colt Hoare, or
other archaeologists later, of flanking ditches
associated with this monument; indeed, Maud
Cunnington (1914) specifically states that there was
no trace of ditches and this is reiterated by Kinnes
(1992, 10, 24).

Two auger holes were positioned close to a
slight fall in the ground surface that appeared to
mark the edge of the eroded mound. Surprisingly
auger hole 2a (Figure 3) revealed deposits up to 0.75
m deep and a similar sequence, up to 1.45m deep,
was recorded in auger hole 2b. These undoubtedly
record the inner edge of the previously unrecorded
flanking ditch of the long barrow. As the project
aim was to examine the buried soil, rather than
provide a profile of the ditch, no further augering
was conducted at this point. Like Maud
Cunnington in 1913, we could not see any real
impression of flanking ditches around the
monument. Recent survey by RCHME/English
Heritage has, however, recorded flanking ditches
and Eagles and Field say that ‘side ditches are in
part just visible and appear to curve slightly, though
presumably have been curtailed at either end’
(forthcoming). Our augering shows that they must

indeed curve and extend beyond the shallow
surface features observable at present.

Attempts to locate the edge of the mound and
the buried soil around its western edge (auger holes
1 and 5) failed. Examination of a small erosion
hollow (see point 3, Figure 3) showed clean natural
chalk at an altitude of nearly 0.5 m above the
surrounding field surface. This indicated severe
lowering of the surrounding chalk and that the
buried soil was to be found on a perched and
preserved chalk plateau. Consequently an attempt
was made to auger though the chalk mound and
penetrate the buried soil near the western extremity
at a considerably higher level than we had
originally anticipated. Augering was difficult
though 0.8m of chalk rubble but this proved to lie
directly on a rich, stonefree silty clay buried soil
nearly 0.4m thick.

The buried soil

The buried soil was encountered 0.86 m below the
surface of the mound (auger hole 4; Figure 3 inset
and Figure 4). The lower 0.06 m of the chalk mound
rubble contained patches of dark brown silty clay
soil material, presumably portions of the buried soil
which had been worm-worked into the mound (cf.
Macphail 1995). The main buried soil was a very
rich, dark brown plastic silty clay with no stones. It
was not possible to determine from the augering the
presence of a turf horizon, nor even of any
horizonation. The lowest 30mm of the profile was
soil and weathered chalk. Soil magnetic
susceptibility measured with a Bartington MS2B
meter coupled to a MS1B sensor coil calibrated for
10g of soil, showed a significant enhancement
towards the surface of the silty clay typical of an
upper, more humic, soil profile. The enhancement
however, was not distinct enough to suggest
conclusively that this represented the turf. We can
consider this as a humic rendzina or possibly a
brown earth soil.

80-86cm _—_ Blocky loose chalk rubble with patches
of dark brown (10YR 4/3/3), stonefree silty clay. Post-
depositional worm worked soil into base of chalk
mound

86-22cm Dark brown (10YR 4/3) plastic silty clay
with some chalk pieces (Ah) giving way to stonefree,
plastic silty clay soil (A/B). No structure or
differentiation noticed in augered soil. Buried old
land surface

122-125cm Brown (10YR 5/3) plastic silty clay with
some small and ?medium chalk pieces. Base of soil

NEOLITHIC OF THE WYLYE VALLEY 1: CORTON LONG BARROW

( e
é oe sO x? © e
SE One eo ee OS LS
= a we es oe & Fe av f oe \y Pe?
3 Rs aes RG 2 SF Se @ € 2 vo
< £ x Si are 3 WF Po DS \N \> ae)
a E aS Ss Pil on eS &, o & irs No » & 3°
g 24 o fore) Q GCENOD AGA, NO NOG ar ° - 0 10203040 50
( fis Ps 7S Lc pe :
ll
Cases
+ a (6, ea Ris eee | 4@) grassland
if / °

Ca Ce LO Ct

TAMU

be ee bee ese ee La ea LL

clearance open

® ancient wood

@ pollen sample

+ 4
0 50 100%

Fig. 4 Land snail histogram

and top of weathered chalk
125+cm Chalk

This buried soil is considerably thicker (at 38 cm)
than those recorded under a number of other long
barrows in Wessex: West Kennet (25cm); South
Street (27cm); Horslip (22cm); Waylands Smithy II
(12cm) and this is a matter we return to later. With
some difficulty five small samples of the soil were
retrieved from the auger for analysis of land snails
and pollen. No artefacts were recovered.

PALAEO-ENVIRONMENTAL
ANALYSIS

The main profile through the barrow (auger 4)
which cored the mound and old land surface was
sampled for palaeo-environmental data. This
enabled the recording and recovery of a series of
small samples from the buried soil. Eight very small
samples (20g) were taken from the topsoil and
mound material for magnetic susceptibility, but
efforts were concentrated on obtaining five larger
samples from the buried soil for land snails which
were subsampled for magnetic susceptibility and
pollen analysis. Five small samples (average 275g)
were extracted using a dutch auger from the base of
the mound and through the old land surface. As
“much soil was removed as possible.

Magnetic Susceptibility

Samples were taken for magnetic susceptibility at
100mm intervals through the profile and at closer
intervals, where possible through the old land
surface, to enable the creation of a magnetic

susceptibility signature (Figure 3 inset, appendix 2
and Table 1). Samples were air dried and 10g
<2mm was measured using a Bartington MS2B
meter and recorded as SI units 10° SI\Kg.

The results show modern thin humic and
calcareous topsoil under open ‘woodland’ (the
barrow is covered with middle-aged beech trees and
a variety of shrubs amongst a dense growth of 2 m
high nettles) with a reading of only 16, below which
the root-penetrated chalk mound gave very low
results between 4 and 9 (ave 6.8). The base of the
chalk mound, immediately above the buried soil
showed a rise to 12, below which significantly
enhanced readings of up to 58 were recorded in the
buried soil. The buried soil showed typical
enhancements in its upper profile, and the entire
soil (except the soil and chalk at 80-85cm, and the
weathered chalk below 122cm) averaged 38 SI 10-8
SI\Kg. This magnetic susceptibility profile tends to
confirm the presence of a complete soil profile
although not recognised as such from the auger
records. The high levels in the upper surface (58 SI
10°8 SI\Kg) may be indicative of some burning on
this surface.

Land Snails

The five small samples produced some shells from
which a broad indication of the pre-monument
landscape history could be gained. In general,
relatively few shells were recovered, but when
calculated as numbers per kilogram this was both
acceptable and consistent with other buried soils.
Although shell numbers are very low (due to the
small quantity of soil obtained), they show striking
and significant changes. In contrast to assemblages
from buried soils under a number of other long

Table 1. Land snail and magnetic susceptibility data from the buried soil (note: ¢

examined for pollen)

Cw
122-125
72

Context
Depth (cm)
Wt (g)

MOLLUSCA

Pomatias elegans (Miller) 1
Carychium tridentatum (Risso) 1
Cochlicopa spp. .
Vertigo pusilla Miller -
Vertigo pygmaea (Draparnaud) -
Vertigo spp. -
Pupilla muscorum (Linnaeus) -
Vallonia costata (Miller) 1
Vallonia excentrica Sterki -
Vallonia spp. -
Acanthinula aculeata (Miller) -
Ena montana (Draparnaud) -
Discus rotundatus (Miller)
Vitrea contracta (Westerlund) -
Aegopinella nitidula (Draparnaud) -
Oxychilus cellarius (Miller) -
Limacidae -
Euconulus fulvus (Miller) -
Clausilia bidentata (Strom) 1
Helicella itala (Linnaeus) -
Trichia hispida (Linnaeus) -
Cepaea/Arianta spp. -

Taxa 3
TOTAL per kg 55
TOTAL

Magnetic susceptibility (SI 10° SI/Kg) 14

THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

sample

A/B A/B Ah mound
110-122 93-110 86-93 80- 85
317 401 248 327
+ 2 + 2

3 is

Z 1 3

l : hs 2

- 1 3 1

3 - 2 -

1 2 6 pp

4 2 3 -

= - 4 3

1 - 4 -

2 - - Z,

1 1 - -

~ 2 + -

3 - 1 -

6 2 4 -

3 - 3 -

1 - 1

l - s

3 + - IF

- 3 6 5

3 1 3 1

. : + +
14 9 11 7
120 37 173 49
38 15 43 16
24 32 58 47

barrows in Wiltshire (Horslip, West Kennet and
South Street, see Evans 1972, 261-4) the main
horizon of the buried soil at Corton showed a
marked change from assemblages dominated by
shade-loving species (Table 1), including some
relict ancient woodland species, to open country
species (nearly 70%). This is, however, similar to
that represented by the snail fauna (Rouse and
Evans in Whittle et al. 1993, 211-217) in the
shallow (8cm) humic rendzina (Macphail in
Whittle et al. 1993, 218-219) at Easton Down,
Wilts. The high percentages of shade-loving

species (50-61%) in the lower part of the soil at
Corton, and the presence of V pusilla and Ena
montana indicate a former ancient, albeit open,
woodland (Figure 4). Like many _ other
assemblages of this type (cf. Evans 1972, 248-74),
most of the shells in this portion of the soil were
more heavily weathered and pitted indicating that
they had been in the soil much longer than those in
the assemblages above 93cm. In the upper mull
humus and possible turfline (93-80cm) the
assemblages are markedly different; although some
shade-loving species persist, the assemblage has a

NEOLITHIC OF THE WYLYE VALLEY 1: CORTON LONG BARROW 71

more open character with the Vallonia species,
Pupilla muscorum and AHelicella itala being
important. This sequence suggests that an open and
ancient woodland existed and, following clearance,
open dry grassland developed.

This relatively long sequence and sharp break
may indicate a well developed soil profile with some
internal stratigraphy (see Carter 1990), but may also
indicate the presence of a subsoil (?tree hollow)
feature. The difficulty of extracting soil through
80cm of bank material and the nature of the
augering made it difficult to discern any definite
differences in the sampled context. An occurrence
of a deeper feature cannot be confirmed from the
limited augering conducted.

Soil Pollen, by Rob Scaife

Four subsamples taken from the snail samples were
prepared for pollen analysis (see Table 1). These
included samples from the soil worked into the
mound (@83cm), the bAh horizon (@90cm) and
the bB horizon (@100cm and 115cm).

Standard techniques were used for the
extraction of the sub-fossil pollen and spores
(Moore and Webb 1978; Moore et al. 1991) with
the addition of micromesh sieving (10). The soil
was highly calcareous and as such represents a
highly unsatisfactory context for pollen
preservation. Consequently, a rigorous pollen
extraction procedure was undertaken at the
Department of Geography, University of
Southampton, on relatively large samples of 6ml.
Samples were decalcified with 10% HCL and
deflocculated with 8% KOH. Coarse debris was
removed through sieving at 150u and clay by
micro-mesh (10w). Remaining silica was digested
with 40% hydrofluoric acid. Erdtman’s acetolysis
was carried out for removal of cellulose and
expanding the size of pollen after extended HF
treatment.

Very little pollen and few spores were present in
any of the samples, but surprisingly, the pollen
samples contain a fair amount of humic material
which remained on the microscope slide. There are
a few spores of Dryopteris type (typical ferns),
Pteridium aquilinum (bracken), and a single
Polypodium vulgare (common polypody). These
were far from abundant. In terms of pollen the very
sporadic presence of Corylus avellana (hazel), a
single Alnus (alder), a single Lactuceae (dandelion
type) and a Poaceae (grass) were too few to record
pollen counts.

Pollen preservation in chalk soils is very
variable. For instance good preservation was found
in the Mesolithic pits at Stonehenge (Scaife 1995),
while richly humic ancient land surfaces and turves
from Bronze Age round barrows on King Barrow
Ridge contained none (Scaife in Cleal and Allen
1994). The poor preservation here may have been
enhanced by biologically active woodland soils
causing oxidation. Spores of ferns (esp. Polypodium)
are often indicative of woodland but, of course,
these represent the last vestiges of any pollen/spore
preservation, and may be residual elements
remaining in the soil for long periods.

Although this is a sparse assemblage, the lack of
Tilia (lime), a robust pollen grain, is noteworthy in
view of its widespread dominance over many areas
during prehistory. Interestingly other sites such as
the buried soil under the Easton Down Neolithic
barrow also lacked Tilia (Cruse in Whittle er al.
1993, 219-221). The possible implications of this
aspect will be discussed in a later paper (Allen,
Gardiner and Scaife in prep.).

DISCUSSION

The Environment

We can tentatively suggest from albeit limited
research that ancient woodland had been cleared
from immediately around the barrow not long
before construction. Nevertheless, the establish-
ment of a mixed open country mollusc fauna
indicates that clearance was probably not for this
construction, and that woodland was not far away.
The position of the barrow, with its clear views to
and from the valley floor, would only have been
meaningful with largely unwooded valley sides. If
the augered profile represents a buried soil rather
than a subsoil feature (and buried soil), then
clearance may have occurred only a relatively short
period (possibly decades/a century) before barrow
construction. Details from John Evans’s work on
buried soils from other long barrows and in Wessex
(West Kennet, Horslip, South Street, Beckhampton
Road and Wayland’s Smithy II) indicate the
removal of woodland and of well-established open
grassland or even arable (South Street) conditions
locally prior to barrow construction. Only Easton
Down indicates clearance of woodland locally,
possibly for the barrow or immediate pre-barrow
events (Whittle et al. 1993). The more localised and
less intensively modified pre-barrow environment

Fe THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE -

Table 2. Viewsheds of Neolithic long barrows in the Corton environs and Wylye Valley

Fig. 5 Barrow
South of River Wylye

(1) Sherrington 1 (ST 968 391) K
(1) Boyton 1 (ST 930 403) I

(1) Sherrington 4 (ST 951 384) J

(1) Sutton Veny (ST 911 415) H

(3) Stockton Barrow (ST 965 376) L

North of River Wylye

(1) King Barrow G (ST 897 444)
(3) Norton Bavant 13 (ST 925 459) C

(3) Norton Bavant 14 (ST 918 459) B
(3) Heytesbury 4 (ST 924 441) E

(3) Knook Barrow (ST 956 446) F
(2) Warminster 6 (ST 903 471) A

(2) Bowl’s Barrow (ST 942 468) D

(2) Knook 5 (ST 967 462)

Location and Viewshed

In the Wylye Valley, next to the river

On low ridge looking into the Wylye Valley and on skyline from the valley
On the first ridge looking into the Wylye Valley and on skyline from the valley
On low greensand/lower chalk bench looking into the Wylye Valley

On the higher ridge looking into dry valleys from which it is on the skyline

On low greensand/lower chalk bench looking into Wylye Valley

On Salisbury Plain false crested from the Wylye Valley and looking into
Oxendean Bottom

On Salisbury Plain false crested from Heytesbury stream and looking into
Oxendean Bottom

High Salisbury Plain, overlooking Wylye but not clearly or obviously visible
from it

High Salisbury Plain, away from Wylye and not visible from it

(1) barrows which look into, or are sited in, the Wylye Valley; (2) barrows on the higher Salisbury Plain that look over the
Wylye in the distance, and (3) barrows which look into other dry valleys i.e. the Oxendean-Heytesbury valley through

which an unnamed bourne runs and may look over, rather than into, the Wylye.

at Corton may be explained by the lack of the great
Neolithic monument complexes such as at
Avebury where other analyses have been
conducted. We have to consider, however, that the
lower section of the augered and sampled profile
may represent a feature such as a treehollow,
rather than a deep soil stratigraphy. Such
possibilities cannot be resolved with the limited
augering programme conducted.

The Barrow

A chalk and earthen mound at least 35m by 15m,
quarried from two now completely infilled, and
previously unrecorded, ditches was thrown over the
eight human burials. The mound, running parallel
to the axis of the slope, overlooked the Wylye Valley
where the long barrow of Sherrington can readily
be seen, and thus we can assume that much of this
area was clear of woodland. The nature of the Wylye
Valley is not known at this time but research by

John Evans at Stockton (Williams and Evans 2000,
43) indicates that the floodplain was not being
alluviated at this time (Evans pers comm). Further
archaeological investigation at the Sherrington
long barrow, by the authors, similar to that
conducted at Corton, is envisaged to test this, and
will be the subject of another paper.

Siting of Neolithic Long Barrows in
the Wylye Valley

The relationship of long barrows to river valleys on
the Salisbury Plain is explored by McOmish et al.
(2002), and in the Wylye Valley by Eagles and Field
(forthcoming). It is a subject that will be more
explicitly addressed in a later paper (Allen, Gardiner
and Scaife in prep.). A relatively large number of
long barrows exist along the Wylye Valley, while
thirteen are recorded east of Warminster (Kinnes
1992, 10, fig. 14.9). Many are sited in lowland and
valley bench locations reflecting the significance of

NEOLITHIC OF THE WYLYE VALLEY 1: CORTON LONG BARROW 73

(3880603890 390000 3910003920007 393000 394000 395000 «396000 +~—«397000 +~«-398000~«399000 |
148000 |
Faces

| 147000 |

146000

Warminster G © F ee |
° E |

\
{

144000 |

143000 |
LE — 142000 |
141000 |

140000 |

139000 |

J |
¥ 438000 |
L 00 |

| 7 co)

| — 175m contour a

1 0 1 2km
se

|
{ { {

Fig. 5 Long barrow viewsheds in the Wylye Valley as determined by site visits and mapped contours at 1:25000. Long barrows

are: A) Warminster 6, B) Norton Bavant 14, C) Norton Bavant 13, D) Bowl’s (Bole’s) Barrow, E) Heytesbury 4, F) Knook, G)
King Barrow, H) Sutton Veny, I) Corton (Boyton 1), 7) Sherrington 4, K) Sherrington 1, L) Stockton (see also Table 2)

the valley, presumably as a communication route and the Wylye from a distance, and

thus indicating its partially open nature. By (3) those which look into other dry valleys (i.e. the
examining the siting and viewsheds of these barrows Oxendean-Heytesbury valley through which
(Figure 5) three groups can be defined; runs an unnamed bourne) and may look over,

rather than into, the Wylye.
(1) those which look into, or are sited in, the Wylye

Valley Thus, the viewsheds we define are not defined by
(2) those on the higher Salisbury Plain that look over intervisibility between the barrows (cf. Wheatley

74 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

1995), but by major topographical features to which
views of the barrows are clearly oriented. Three
barrows are specially sited to the south of the river
to look into the valley; one is located in the valley
(Sherrington 1); and only one (Stockton) on the
higher chalk down has no significant view shed into
the Wylye. Indeed its views are into two dry valleys.
Those which look into the Wylye (Boyton 1,
Sherrington 4 and Sutton Veny) are all false-crested
from it. Similarly, to the north of the river we can
see one barrow which looks into the Wylye (King
Barrow), while a number, including Bowl’s Barrow,
are on the High Plain and most overlook the Valley,
four are clearly sited to overlook the Oxendean
valley from which they are false-crested. Thus over
75% of the large density of long barrows in this area
reflect the significance of the Wylye Valley (Figure
5), of which over a third are specifically sited in it,
or to view it (Table 2).

Other Activity of the Wylye Valley

Environs

As is typical with the earlier Neolithic, there is little
else to accompany these mortuary monuments.
Isolated casual finds are recorded and both early
Neolithic pottery and flints have been recovered
from excavations such as beneath Bronze Age
barrows on Lamb Down (Vatcher 1963, 431 and
418) and part of a Group | stone axe was found not
far away (SMR ST93NE106). There are no
causewayed enclosures confidently listed although
the internal earthworks within Scatchbury to the
west (Corney pers. com.) may be an unconfirmed
example. The presence of relatively large numbers
of long barrows in the environs of Corton, and
particularly in the Wylye Valley (cf. Kinnes 1992) is
a clear indication of well-established early
Neolithic communities, and this paper shows the
Wylye Valley as a focus of some of that activity/
attention.

CONCLUSIONS

From limited and minimally intrusive archaeo-
logical investigation we offer the following
conclusions:

1. The survey has shown the traditionally
recorded length of the Corton long barrow (216 ft,
65.8 m; Lambert 1806; Hoare 1812, 102; Ashbee

1970, 167; Kinnes 1992, 10; VCH 1957, 138; Wilts
County SMR) to be in error, and we now record a
length of 35m (c. 115 ft), in keeping with that
published by Maud Cunnington (1914, 386-7).

2. Despite the growth of trees over the barrow
after 1804 (Figure 2a) which had become
established by 1913 (Cunnington 1914, 386-7;
Figure 2c) an ancient land surface was well
preserved beneath the mound. The trees presently
on the fringes of the barrow (Figure 3) provide
shelter for cattle which are creating some surface
damage to the edges of the mound. However, as this
survey and augering has demonstrated, this
‘damage’ is largely superficial.

3. Augering has demonstrated, not surprisingly,
the presence of flanking ditches, previously
unrecorded.

4. Precision augering and = sampling has
demonstrated the presence of a well-preserved
buried land surface of greater thickness than in
many other recorded long barrows, from which the
acquisition of environmental information (soils,
snails and pollen) provides an indication of local
clearance of the woodland around the barrow
enabling views of the Wylye Valley.

5. These data were obtained from very limited
study, rapid survey and minimally intrusive auger
examination of the extant scheduled monument.

Acknowledgements

This research was conducted as part of the Corton
and Boyton millennium archaeology day which
received Millennium Fund grant aid through the
Heritage for All scheme. We would like to thank
the village millennium committee; especially
Richard Witt, Robert and Maria Mayall, and
Barbara Saunt for the invitation and _ their
assistance. We would like to thank the landowners
Thomas and Caroline Wheatley-Hubbard for
allowing us, and the villagers of Corton and
Boyton, to visit the site and undertake this
investigation, and the folk of the two villages who
joined us in our investigations.

Amanda Chadburn, English Heritage, was
wholly supportive, providing guidance and
permission to undertake the augering. During post-
excavation, Duncan Coe of Wiltshire County
Council provided detailed SMR information, and

NEOLITHIC OF THE WYLYE VALLEY 1: CORTON LONG BARROW 75

Lorna Haycock and Bernard Nurse, librarians of
Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History
Society and Society of Antiquaries respectively,
sought out references for us and_ provided
photocopies, as did Paul Robinson, curator,
Wiltshire Heritage Museum, Devizes. John Evans
provided information about his own research in the
Wylye Valley. We thank David Field and Bruce
Eagles for discussing their work with us, and
allowing us to quote from their unpublished work,
and for permitting us to use the survey of the
Corton long barrow, carried out by the RCHME in
1991 as part of their South Wiltshire earthworks
project. Our thanks also Karen Nichols for
producing figures 1 and 5 from our scrappy
originals and to Rob Scaife who analysed the pollen
samples.

Archive

Copies of this report together with the paper
archive are deposited in Salisbury and South
Wiltshire Museum, and Wiltshire Archaeological
and Natural History Society Museum in Devizes.
Copies of this manuscript have also been presented
to the Corton and Boyton Millennium Committee.

Bibliography

ASHBEE, P, 1970. The Earthen Long Barrow in Britain.
London:, Dent

CARTER, S.P, 1990. The stratification and taphonomy
of shells in calcareous soils: implications for land
snail analysis in archaeology, Journal of Archaeological
Science 17, 495-507.

CLEAL, R.M.J. and ALLEN, M.J., 1994. Investigation of
Tree-Damaged Barrows on King Barrow Ridge and
Luxenborough Planation, Amesbury, WANHM. 87,
54-8

CUNNINGTON, M.E., 1914. List of long barrows in
Wiltshire, Wilts Archaeol. Mag 38, 379-414

CUNNINGTON, R.H., 1975. From Antiquarian to
Archaeologist. Aylesbury: Shire Publications Ltd

EAGLES, B. and FIELD, D., forthcoming. William
Cunnington and the long barrows of the River Wylye,
in Cleal, R.M.J. and Pollard, J. (eds). Monuments and
Material culture. Papers on the Neolithic and Bronze Age
of Britain

EVANS, J.G., 1972. Land Snails in Archaeology. London:
Seminar Press

FRENCH, C.A.I, LEWIS, H., ALLEN, M.J., and

SCAIFE, R., 2000. Palaeo-environmental and
archaeological investigations on Wyke Down and in
the upper Allen Valley, Cranborne Chase, Proc.
Dorset, Natr. Hist & Archaeol. Soc. 122, 53-71

HOARE, R. Colt, 1812. The Ancient History of Wiltshire,
vol 1. London:, William Miller

GUIDO, M. and SMITH, I.F, 1982. Figsbury Rings: a
reconsideration of the inner enclosure, WANHM. 76,
21-25

KINNES, I., 1992. Non-megalithic long barrows and allied
structures in the British Neolithic. London: British
Museum Occasional Paper 52

LAMBERT, A.B., 1806. Further account of tumuli
opened in Wiltshire in a letter from Mr. William
Cunnington FAS to Alymer Bourke Lambert, Esq,
FRS, FAS and FLS, Heytesbury, Sept 14 1804,
Archaeologia 15, 338-46

MACPHAIL, R.I., 1995. Soils, in Wainwright G. and
Davies, S., Balksbury Camp, Hampshire, Excavations
1973 and 198i. English Heritage Archaeol. Rep. 4,
101-104

McOMISH, D., FIELD, D. and BROWN, G., 2002. The
field archaeology of Salisbury Plain Training Area.
Swindon: English Heritage

MOORE, PD. and WEBB, J.A., 1978. An illustrated guide
to pollen analysis. London: Hodder and Stoughton

MOORE, PD., WEBB, J.A., and COLLINSON, M.E.,
1991. Pollen analysis Second edition. Oxford:
Blackwell Scientific

SCAIFE, R.G., 1995. Boreal and Sub-boreal chalk
landscape: pollen evidence, in Cleal R.M.J., Walker
K.E., and Montague R., Stonehenge in its landscape:
Twentieth-century Excavations. English Heritage
Archaeol. Rep. 10, 51-55

THURNAM, J., 1869. On Ancient British Barrows: part
1, long barrows, Archaeologia 42, 161-244

VATCHER, F de M., 1963. The excavation of the barrows
on Lamb Down, Codford St. Mary, WANHM. 58,
417-441

VCH, 1957. Victoria County Histories, a history of Wiltshire,
Page, R.B. and Crittall, E. (eds), vol 1, part 1, 138

WHEATLEY, D., 1995 Cumulative viewshed analysis: a
GIS-based method for investigating intervisibility,
and its archaeological application, in Lock, G. and
Stancic, Z., (eds), Archaeology and GIS: a European
perspective. London: Taylor and Francis, 171-185

WHITTLE, A., ROUSE, A.J. and EVANS, J.G., 1993. A
Neolithic downland monument in its environment:
excavations at Easton Down long barrow, Bishops
Cannings, north Wiltshire, Proc. Prehist. Soc. 59, 197-
239

WILLIAMS, D. and EVANS, J.G., 2000. Past environ-
ments in river valley bottoms around Danebury, in
Cunliffe, B., The Danebury Environs Programme; the
prehistory of a Wessex landscape, vol. 1. Oxford Uni-
versity Committee for Archaeology Monograph 48, 43

76 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

APPENDIX 1: auger logs

Auger 1; plough removed mound
0-10cm Loose very dry humic and highly calcareous silty loam with some chalk pieces over chalk
shallow Ap Shallow former ploughsoil

Auger 2a; ditch

0-20cm Compact grey, dry calcareous silt loam with common chalk pieces. Ap

20-40cm Pale brown (10YR 6/3) calcareous silty loam, common chalk pieces, with larger and more
frequent chalk pieces towards 40cm. Ploughwash (tertiary fill), probably medieval and
post medieval

40-55cm Dark greyish brown (10YR 4/2) (reddish hue) moist silty clay, with common small chalk
pieces. Secondary fill

c.55-60cm Lens of chalk rubble with many very small chalk pieces with matrix as above, giving way to a
lens of medium chalk rubble containing visible charcoal pieces on auger. Chalk wash
primary fill

60-70cm Medium and small chalk pieces in a soil matrix

75cm + Chalk rubble - hole terminated. Primary fill

Auger 2b; ditch

0-25cm Light brown silty ploughsoil with many small and some medium chalk pieces. Ap

25-35cm —as above but chalkier, possibly towards base of ploughzone

35-45cem Light buff silty calcareous fill with varying chalk content (?chalk lenses). ploughwash /
tertiary fill

45-98cm Slightly darker silty clay with fewer small chalk pieces, but occasional medium chalk pieces

and charcoal fragment at 87cm. secondary fill
98-145cm Becoming increasingly chalkier with depth possibly primary fill or eroded ditch sides
145cm Solid chalk

Exposure 3; eastern mound
0-2cm Thin brown humus and roots over

2-16cm Exposed weathered natural chalk

Auger 4; West end mound; sampled profile

0-8cm Loose dry silty calcareous humus, clear boundary Weakly formed humic horizon on chalk
rubble. A

8-80cm Very blocky chalk -medium and large fresh chalk pieces- in a loose chalky fill. Exceptionally
difficult to penetrate with the auger. Chalk mound

80-86cm Blocky chalk as above, but with patches of dark brown (10YR 4/3), stonefree silty clay

[sample]. Post-depositional worm worked soil into base of chalk mound

86-122cm Dark brown (10YR 4/3) plastic silty clay with some chalk pieces giving way to stonefree,
plastic silty clay soil. No structure or differentiation noticed in augered soil. Buried old
land surface

122-5cm Brown (10YR 5/3) plastic silty clay with some small and ?medium chalk pieces. Base of soil
and top of weathered chalk

125+cm Chalk

Auger 5

0-10cm Loose very dry humic and calcareous silty loam with some chalk pieces Shallow humic
rendzina, shallow A

10-30cm Large and medium chalk rubble with some soil. Weathered and root disturbed natural chalk

NEOLITHIC OF THE WYLYE VALLEY 1: CORTON LONG BARROW 77

APPENDIX 2: Magnetic susceptibility results of the full profile

Samples: auger 4 - magnetic susceptibility
(SI units 10-8 SI\Kg)
@ Scm 16 topsoil
@15cm 9 )
@25cm 8 )
@45cm 4 )
@55cm 7 ) chalk mound
@65cm 4 )
@75cm 9 )
@80cm 12 )
80-85cm = @83cm 47 )
86-93cm = @90cm 58 Ah
93-110cm = @100cm 32 )
110-122cm = @115cm 24 ) buried soil
122-125cm = @123cm 14 )

chalk/natural

78 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE |

Watercolour by Wiliam Owen Pughe (1759-1835), whose verse and watercolours, evoking Druidic themes, drew inspiration from
Tolo’s ideas. Reproduced by kind permission of the National Library of Wales

Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History Magazine, vol. 97 (2004), pp. 78-88

A Welsh Bard in Wiltshire: Iolo Morganwg, Silbury

and the Sarsens

by Fon Cannon! and Mary-Ann Constantine?

A letter written by the Welsh antiquary and Druidic enthusiast, Iolo Morganwg, about his visit to the Avebury region
in 1777 1s published and discussed. Mis views on Silbury Hill (excavated the year before) and on the nature and origin
of sarsens and sarsen settings are placed in the context of antiquarian thought, and discussed alongside other Wiltshire

references in his letters and published works.

In January 1777 a thirty-year-old Welsh stonecutter
wrote to a compatriot in London with a vivid
account of his recent journey through Wiltshire. He
was Edward Williams, better known as Iolo
Morganwg, the man whose vision of Britain’s
Druidic past would have an enormous impact on
Welsh life and letters, and whose obsessive revision
of its medieval literature would both inspire and
frustrate Welsh scholarship for well over a century.'
Iolo’s vision of a Bardic Institution and the
patriarchal religion of the Druids owes much to
antiquarian predecessors like William Stukeley and
Henry Rowlands; it owes much too, to subsequent
revolutionary politics, to Thomas Paine’s Rights of
Man, and to his own Unitarian convictions. And it
owes something, no doubt, to the laudanum that he
took from his mid-twenties ‘for a troublesome
cough’, and to which he remained addicted through-
out a long and busy life. But at the heart of the
vision is a sense of place, of history rooted in
physical remains, in buildings and in stones. In a
letter from the archive of the National Library of
Wales (NLW MS 1808Eii no. 1519) presented below,
we have Iolo’s response to two key sites in what can
best be described as his ‘historical mythology’ of
the early British past: and, thanks to a couple of
crucial details, his observations have a particular
interest for archaeologists of those sites today, as

well as throwing new light on seventeenth and
eighteenth-century attitudes to ancient landscapes.

12 January 1777
My Dear Friend,

I should have wrote sooner to you, but for the
uneertain uncertainty I was in whether I should stay
here for two Days together during the late frost,
which puta stop to our trade. On my way hither I was
so lucky as to be two days sick on the road. I suppose
you would not be sorry to have as good an account as
I can give you of the opening of the Mountaineous
Tumulus at ABURY. I passed by it, and had the good
fortune to meet with an inteligent shepherd, who saw
it open (for it is now shut up) the Gentleman who had
it opened had the area of its base measured and found
that it stood upon no less than eight acres of ground
(which is but little less than that on which the largest
Egyptian Pyramid stands.) it is high in proportion
and is never taken by the uninformed traveller but
for a large natural mountain, there were four coal
miners from Kingswood Coalmines near Bristol,
employed for some Months to make a hole down to
the bottom, they found it to consist of chalk and
gravel thrown together by the hands of men and no
natural hill as some doubted it to be, there were many

| Hillside, Ogbourne St George, Marlborough SN8 1SU_ ? Iolo Morganwg Project, University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and

Celtic Studies, Aberystwyth SY23 3HH

80 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

cavities in it but for what purpose is unknown as
nothing was found in them. — there are many
hundreds of Druidical monuments within two Miles
around Abury (on Marlborough Downs) and most of
them very stupenduous, I have seen the Grey withers
on these Downs, whence a late author asserts the
stones of stonehenge were got, but with equal propriety
he might have say’d that the grey withers were
brought from stone henge for within 50 miles of this
place there are no quaries of stone of any kind exept
those in the neighbourhood of Bath 30 miles off and
that not in the least like those stones that are in such
prodigious numbers all over these Downs and
Salisbury plain ...

the Grey Withers is a Carnedd so Stupenduous as
to have been taken hitherto for a natural mountain of
dry Stones. but is evidently thrown together by the
hands of Men as they all lie on the face of the ground
in a confused manner like all carneddau, whereas
roeks Rocks are always found in regular beds. besides
upon digging into the ground there are no stones of
any kind whatever to be found. nor any thing but
marl or chalk. about 1000 acres of land on the Downs
next Marlborough are covered with these kind of
stones mostly either in streight or in circular rows.
and there must have been formerly much more of
them for all the houses walls &c & even the large
Town of Marlborough are built with these stones
broken to pieces. whence such amazing numbers of
such enormous stones were got, or how brought
hither, 1s astonishing to think. there is nothing more
evident to me than that this was the grand seat of the
Druids before the Roman invasion, if you consider
the situation of the Country you will find it the most
convenient of any in Britain, both for the resorting of
the British provinces, as not being secluded by any
[?] great rivers, ranges of Mountains arms of the sea
&c and for the convenience of the Galic Students who
it is well known came over to Britain to be fully
instructed in the misteries of Druidism, that the
Druids might retire to Anglesea on the Roman
invasion I can readily allow. and might make that
Island the seat of their learning for some short time.
this is all I can ever grant. my I heard when at
Anglesea that M'. Rowlands had never been farther
than Aberconwy out of Anglesea. this I believe to be
pretty true, otherwise he would never have laid such
stress on the exceeding pitiful monuments of that
Island as proofs of its being the chief seat of
Druidism. M’. Rowlands was certainly prejudiced in
favour of Anglesea, if it was really the chief place of
the Druids, what? in the name of reason was the use
of these Stupenduous works of theirs on Salisbury

plains & Marlborough Downs, a single one of them
being many hundreds of times larger than all their
remains in Anglesea put together, consider farther
that in Anglesea the materials were found on the
spot, but here were brought from the prodiguous
distance of probably a hundred Miles if not farther
for with all my enquiries I cannot find any quaries of
such stones within that distance, but your patience is
probably tired, and so no more of Druidism. —

If you will be kind enough to send my Box and
tools, directed to me at M', Marsh Carver N°. 23,
Orchard street Bristol, I shall be highly oblidged to
you. I left the extract from the Six Months Tour thro’
England and Wales in your house and and with it a
little sheet Catalogue of Books, Mostly Architecture,
of Taylor’s Holborn: I should be glad if you could
send them with the Box perhaps you could lift the
cover up a little to put them under, or perhaps fasten
them under the cord, or put them on the cover and
tack a sheet of stiff paper over them. I shall soon take
a trip to Wales and shall then have something to send
you which, perhaps, you will be glad to have.

Iam my Dear friend
your very humble Servant
and sincire well wisher
Edward Williams
Bristol}
Jan’. 12}
1777}

PS. my Sincire respects to Mess". Ceiriog Du, Alwen,
&c, &c, &c, &c, &c, and likewise to M'. Fenton.
direct your letter to me at M’. Watkins in Baker’s yard
Back street Bristol.

SILBURY

Tolo’s ‘intelligent shepherd’ was indeed a useful
informant. The ‘Mountaineous Tumulus’ was
Silbury Hill, and the excavation mentioned was
that funded by the Duke of Northumberland, a
prominent antiquary with local connections, who
employed a number of miners to excavate the Hill
at the end of October 1776. ‘The Antiquarians
promise to themselves wonders from the bowels of
this mountain!’ exclaimed the Bristol Journal; the
hole itself was said to be eight feet square (2nd
November 1776; cited in Field, Brown and
Thomason 2002, 103).

In fact, this first known antiquarian
intervention at Silbury Hill produced nothing but
‘a thin slip of oak’ (Field, Brown and Thomason

A WELSH BARD IN WILTSHIRE: IOLO MORGANWG, SILBURY AND THE SARSENS 81

2002).’ The main significance of the excavation lies
in the long-term side-effects attributed to poor or
non-existent backfilling. This has until recently
been assumed to be the cause of the structural
problems which culminated in the major collapse at
the Hill in May 2000.? It is this collapse that lends
relevance to any new information about the
excavation, and thanks to Iolo and his shepherd
there is now more that can be said. There was, for
example, no known date for the end of the dig,
which could conceivably have been extended over
two seasons. The letter gives us a new terminus ad
quem of 12 January 1777; Iolo’s actual visit to the
site could well have been a week or weeks before he
wrote the letter — he implies, for example, that he
has been delayed by frost — so the excavation must
have taken place over November and December
1776. ‘Some months’ is not an unreasonable
description of the time period involved.

We also have the suggestion that there were
four, rather than the previously reported three,
miners, which would make sense: David Field
(pers. comm. 2002) has suggested that two were
digging and two removing spoil. And, in
‘Kingswood Coalmines’ we have a new and
persuasive point of origin to add to earlier claims

Watercolour by William Owen Pughe (1759-1835). Reproduced by kind permission of the National Library of Wales

that they came from ‘Cornwall’ or ‘the Mendips’
(Field, Brown and Thomason, 2002, 16)* In other
areas Iolo provides new information about the
activities that took place, which included
measuring the base of the hill and examining how it
was built: ‘it was found to consist of chalk and
gravel thrown together by the hands of men’ — a
reasonably accurate description, even if it does not
do full justice to the complexity of the hill’s internal
engineering as it is now understood. But perhaps
the most intriguing aspect of Iolo’s report is the
statement that ‘there were many cavities in it but
for what purpose is unknown as nothing was found
in them’.

The suggestion that there might be ancient
cavities in the hill raises old questions: from the
earliest times, observers have wondered if the hill
conceals a burial or other structure. Yet no evidence
for anything of this nature has been found in the
three hundred years of archaeological investigation
at Silbury Hill; and all known cavities appear to be
the result of poorly-consolidated excavation. Even
the role of the 1776 excavation is currently open to
question: all the cavities revealed in Cementation
Skanska’s seismic and geo-technical surveys in
2001, 2002 and 2003 seem either to be anomalies in

82 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

data or the result of poorly consolidated tunnelling
by Atkinson, in 1968 (MacAvoy, pers. comm.,
2002). Nevertheless, Iolo’s observations are
certainly worth taking into account in any future
assessment of the issue.

Altogether, considering his notoriety in Welsh
literary history as a forger of pasts and manipulator
of truths, there is very little in this early letter that
is demonstrably unreliable or romanticized: Iolo
can be a good witness, as his observations of local
customs in his native Glamorgan, or his later
reports for the Board of Agriculture demonstrate
(Williams 1956, 35-72, Jones 2001). The date and
context of the letter are also encouraging for the
historian. At this point in his career, though already
keenly interested in the subjects that would come to
form the keystones of his elaborate bardic vision,
Iolo’s antiquarianism is relatively receptive and
fluid. Here, as for the majority of his contem-
poraries and intellectual predecessors, the stones
and mounds of the Avebury—Stonehenge area are
the acknowledged heartland of ‘druidic’ activity (he
even takes a swipe at the Anglesey antiquary Henry
Rowlands for his small-minded parochialism).
Only later, as Iolo’s centre of gravity shifted more

and more to his own beloved Glamorgan, would the
importance of the great Wiltshire complex
gradually fade.

At this point too, we can be fairly confident
about his intentions in writing to the London
farrier Owen Jones (also known as Owain Myfyr).
As a literary-minded young Welshman in England
(he had been working as a mason in London and
Kent over the last three or four years), Iolo was
attracted to the thriving London Welsh societies,
whose activities in terms of the publication and
promotion of Welsh literature were in fact
considerably livelier than anything happening in
Wales itself. Amongst the London Welsh, Owain
Myfyr was a genial and generous supporter, not
only of contemporary poetry (Iolo had sent him a
draft poem for comment about a year earlier) but
above all of attempts to copy, preserve and publish
the neglected treasures of Wales’s literary past. So
the young stonecutter heading back to Wales in
1777 was also establishing literary contacts which
would bear fruit for decades to come. As a poet,
historian, antiquary, and, before long, the self-
appointed preserver of Welsh (or rather Ancient
British) tradition, Iolo had every reason to take an

The byway on the line of the Great Bath Road still goes through the heart of Fyfield Down; the Scheduled hollow ways where it
climbs Overton Hill are visible in the background. © Fon Cannon 2003

A WELSH BARD IN WILTSHIRE: IOLO MORGANWG, SILBURY AND THE SARSENS 83

interest in the stones and monuments he passed on
his way home.

THE SARSENS

As the second half of the letter shows, Iolo had also
visited the sarsen spreads centred on Fyfield Down,
presumably (though not necessarily) at the same
time as he passed Silbury Hill. Silbury was on the
main coach road from London to Bristol and Bath
(today’s A4), roughly following the valley of the
River Kennet. Fyfield Down could have been
accessed from this road by going up one of the six
side-roads shown on Ogilby’s map of 1675, by
walking up a sarsen-filled valley such as
Piggledene, or by leaving the turnpike at Marl-
borough (which was set up in 1742-3: Crittall, 1959,
266-71). Whichever way he came up, Iolo would
have joined the Old Bath Road, a route over the
Downs from Marlborough which was for many
years the major connection between London and
Bristol (indeed, the hollow ways cut by the weight
of traffic along it can still be seen on the side of
Overton Hill).. This higher road, which is still a
bridleway, bisects Fyfield Down, and while coaches
avoided it after the turnpiking of the valley road
because of the many stones it remained popular
with pedestrians (Watts, 1993; Chandler, 2001, 250;
and Phillips, 1983); in fact, although turnpiking
was the decisive moment for the valley road, both
roads were probably used, depending on
circumstances, for many years (Fowler, 2000, 22).
Iolo is likely to have used both routes at different
times: as turnpikes were free to those on foot, there
was no reason for him to avoid the valley road past
Silbury Hill, while the road across the Downs and
through the sarsens remained formally open to all
traffic until 1815.

The higher road had thus been travelled by
many of the ‘great and good’ of society, and from the
seventeenth century on, the sarsen stones appear in
various letters and publications. Indeed they
became something of an attraction: Camden
mentions them in 1607, describing the Kennet as
running ‘through fields, all over which great stones
like rocks rise out’ (p. 93); John Ogilby’s Britannia
(1675), a gazetteer and guide to key routes, points
out that en route from Marlborough to Bath, one can
view the ‘Multitude of Stones disperst’ (p. 21). Over
a century after Camden, Stukeley confirms that it
was ‘the topic of amusement for travellers, to
observe the gray weathers on Marlborough downs’,

(Stukeley 1776, p.14) while a 1792 guide to the Bath
Road devotes several pages to the ‘exceedingly
hard’ stones which ‘lie scattered irregularly, along
the sides of a valley on the right of the road’, noting
that some of these clusters are ‘placed in
semicircular forms’ (Robertson 1792, 28 and 38-39).

Iolo’s description is not dissimilar. Indeed, he
gives the same paradoxical impression of both
chaos and regularity, noting that the stones ‘all lie
on the face of the ground in a confused manner’,
and that ‘about 1000 acres of land on the Downs
next Marlborough are covered with these kind of
stones mostly either in streight or in circular rows.’
Anyone who knows Fyfield Down will recognise
the aptness of this: the scattered sarsens do indeed
sometimes form rows and arcs, partly because, as we
now know, they were cleared to the edges of newly-
made fields as early as the Bronze Age (Fowler
2000). It is this curious ambiguity of patterning, the
blurring of the boundaries between the natural and
artificial, which lies at the heart of the debate about
the stones from the beginning of antiquarian
interest in them.

In this letter, Iolo is firmly persuaded that the
Greyweathers were ‘evidently thrown together by
the hands of Men’, vividly describing them as ‘a
Carnedd so stupenduous as to have been taken
hitherto for a natural mountain of dry stones’. The
‘confused manner’ of their arrangement, far from
indicating the random disposition of nature, is
proof of their human design (his opinion that
natural ‘Rocks are always found in regular beds’ is
very much the observation of a stonemason, as is
the knowledge he shows of the location of quarries
in the area). Here, he is restating an idea that, in
various forms, had been in existence for some time.
Other observers held these strange, foreign-looking
stones (they are said to be named after ‘Saracens’) to
be artificial not only in their lay-out but in their
very composition. As early as 1607, Camden says
‘some [...] think these stones not natural or hewn
from a quarry, but made of fine sand and some
unctuos cement’ (Camden 1607, 93).° Robert Gay,
in 1725, took issue with Inigo Jones’s theory that
they were the source or quarry for Stonehenge,
declaring ‘I am confident that they are saxa factitia,
great artifical stons, made of many small naturall
Stones’ (cited in Legg 1986, 43). Childrey, in 1661,
on the other hand, was ‘clearly of the opinion that
they are naturail stones’, and a testimony to the
wisdom of Nature, who would apparently consider
it proper to ensure large amounts of stone were
gathered together in any area which otherwise

84 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

The sarsens on Fyfield Down, many of which have been moved in the creation of prehistoric fields, have a curious ambiguity of
patterning, blurring the boundaries between the natural and the artificial. © Fon Cannon 2003

lacked them (pp. 44 and 49). And if they were
natural, opinion differed as to whether they were
connected to the bedrock or lay loose on the surface.
Sir Christopher Wren, discussing them with John
Aubrey, suggested that ‘they were cast up by a
volcano’ (Aubrey 1685, 44); for William Stukeley,
writing in 1740, they were ‘loose, detach’d from any
rock, and doubtless lay there ever since the
creation, being solid parts thrown out to the surface
of the fluid globe, when its rotation was first
impress’d’ (Stukeley 1740, 16). Samuel Pepys,
however, found it ‘prodigious’:

to see how full the Downes are of great stones; and all
along the vallies, stones of considerable bigness, most
of them growing certainly out of the ground so thick
as to cover the ground (Pepys 1668).

In 1754 the geologist Edward Owen, reserving his
own judgement on the origins of the stones, noted:

When I spoke with the People of the place
concerning the singularity of such large masses of
stone lying in so particular a manner, they gave it me
as their opinion that they took their rise in the
different places where I saw them lie, and the tops of

numbers of them, just shooting as it were healthy and
strong out of the earth, as if they belonged to large
masses growing up within it, seemed to confirm them
in that opinion; but be that as it will, the oldest and
most sensible part of the people assured me, it was
their stedfast belief, that they had grown very
considerably in their time (Owen 1754, 241).

But it was John Aubrey, writing between 1665
and 1697, and William Stukeley, published from
1740, who made the first systematic investigations
of the landscape, establishing that the sarsens were
natural and the source material for Avebury and
Stonehenge, and for the first time proving the
difference between these man-made monuments
and the natural phenomenon of the sarsen spreads.
It is worth remembering that the contrast between
the different parts of the landcape was not nearly as
great in their time as it is today. Most of the stones
at Avebury were buried or recumbent, and the size
and shape of the henge greatly obscured by
orchards and field boundaries. There were also
larger numbers of uncleared natural sarsens in the
area than there are now (Field, forthcoming); and
on Fyfield Down, along the Kennet Avenue and in

A WELSH BARD IN WILTSHIRE: IOLO MORGANWG, SILBURY AND THE SARSENS 85

Avebury itself sarsens generally could be discerned
lying in rings and rows. The achievements of
Stukeley and Aubrey can be seen in their original
context as acts of classification and analysis as
much as of outright discovery, distinguishing the
artificial from the natural in a landscape filled with
stones set in apparent patterns.

Though these ideas had gained wide acceptance
by the latter half of the eighteenth century, Iolo’s
perception of human design across the entire
landscape is far from inexplicable or perverse, and
he was certainly not alone in interpreting the
sarsens of the Marlborough Downs as one vast
ancient monument. Indeed, modern archaeology
would not disagree with him: the known extent of
the grid of fields laid out on the Downs in the
Bronze Age, and the scale and variety of the
monuments still being identified in the Avebury
landscape, all tend to confirm his point of view.
Given his belief that all the stones came from
elsewhere (‘whence such amazing numbers of
stones were got, or how brought thither, is
astonishing to think’), it becomes clearer why this
letter, rather surprisingly, pays scant attention to
Avebury itself. If the entire area is perceived as a
major ‘Druidical monument’ or complex of
monuments, then Avebury would appear
correspondingly diminished. It may also be that its
central importance is taken for granted, or, more
simply, that Iolo did not have the time or
opportunity for a proper visit.

Iolo’s belief that the sarsens originate outside
the area naturally leads him to reject the ‘late
author’ who ‘asserts the stones of stonehenge were
got’ from the Marlborough Downs. This idea was
fairly widespread, appearing in the writings of
Inigo Jones, Aubrey and Pepys, but it was most
influentially put forward by William Stukeley (who
died in 1765), and he is the likely target here.
Elsewhere in Iolo’s manuscripts the rejection of
Stukeley is made explicit, though in a manner
which seems curiously wilful, not to say unfair,
since Iolo himself appears to have changed his
mind about the origins of the sarsens, and is here
much more in line with Stukeley’s thinking:

These masses of Granite are to be found in
abundance on Marlborough downs, where they are
called the Greyweathers, in many places on the surface
of Salisbury plains, and almost every where there at
no great depth in the ground amongst that
prodigious heap of volcanic or deluvian rubbish of
which all that part of this Island for fifty miles at least

around, consists [...] Dr Stukely in his attempt to
discover the quarry whence the materials of Stone-
henge came had the misfortune to jabber a profusion
of pedantic nonsense (NLW MS 13089, 172).

In another note he adds ‘stones like those of
Stonehenge are found in great numbers on the
surface of the ground of various magnitudes
perhaps since the Creation, especially about Abury,
the Grey weathers etc’? (NLW MS 13097B, 331).
Since Stukeley explicitly claimed that ‘All our
Druid temples are built, where these sort of stones
from the surface can be had at reasonable distances;
for they are never taken from quarries’ (Stukeley
1740, 5), it is hard to see what Iolo’s quarrel with
him is here. It may be that we lack some key piece of
contextual information that would help us
understand the nature of his disagreement.

FROM WILTSHIRE TO
GLAMORGAN

Though Iolo walked the route from London to
Bristol many times throughout his life, his
manuscripts and correspondence reveal
disappointingly little else on the Wiltshire sites:
this early letter seems to be the fullest account of
them to survive. Yet there is no doubting that the
prehistoric monuments helped give shape to the
various rituals of Iolo’s bardic tradition, many of
which crystallized during another period in
London in the early 1790s. Iolo’s bardism saturates
the introduction to William Owen Pughe’s Heroic
Elegies of Llyware Hen (1792), and inspired him to
produce several watercolours on druidic themes; in
the same year Iolo held the first Gorsedd or bardic
ceremony on Primrose Hill. And when his own
Poems, Lyric and Pastoral came out in 1794, its
footnotes and essays were full of information about
bards past and present, including this nicely scaled-
down and portable version of the stone circle:

The Welsh Bards always meet in the open air whilst
the Sun is above the horizon, where they form a circle
of stones, according to the ancient custom; this circle
they call Cylch Cyngrair, the Circle of Concord, or of
Confederation. In these days, however, it is formed
only of a few very small stones, or pebbles, such as
may be carried to the spot in one man’s pocket; but
this would not have been deemed sufficient by those
who formed the stupendous Bardic Circle of Stone-
Henge (Williams 1794, IT, 39).

86 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

A series of letters from 1800-1801 reveals some
tantalising glimpses of further interest in the
subject. In January 1800 Iolo tells Owen Jones that
he intends to:

come by way of Stone henge, not above 5 or 6 miles
out of my way, to London; I want to notice the stone,
I have often seen the place but not since I became a
little acquainted Scientifically with the modern
System of Mineralogy, which is necessary for a new
acct. of Stone Henge. As for the places whence the
stones were dug I have beyond the possibility of a
doubt long ago discovered them (British Library
Additional MSS 15024, f. 308-09).

This confidence is echoed in a letter to William
Owen Pughe some months letter: ‘I will come by
stone henge, not much out of my way, and take a
proper account of it. I have lost what I once wrote
on it, or have mislaid it, I am certain that I can give
a better account of it than has yet appeared’ (NLW
MS 13221E, 77). But that ‘proper account’, like so
many other schemes of Iolo’s, either has not
survived or was never written. In 1801, William
Owen Pughe, busily mapping the place-names of
early Welsh poetry onto a druidic landscape, asked
Iolo:

If, in your way up, you should come the Marlborough
Road, try to stop to examine Avebury more minutely
than I had time to do — I think, that there is no doubt
of its being our grand national place of Meeting — It
was (I say) the Gorsez Bryn Gwyzon — Bryn Gwyzon
(Silbury hill) formed its meridional Index; for I
think, you will find it to be exactly south from the
centre of Avebury, or from some particular point in
the circle — Cludair Cyvrangon, or the Mound of the
Conventions was only another name for Bryn
Gwyzon? (NLW MS 21282E, item 350).

Iolo in response promises ‘to bestow one whole day
on Avebury and Silbury’, adding:

I have long wished to do so, and I now want to do so,
and, were it possible, another day to examine Stone
henge more minutely than I have hitherto done, of
each of these curious objects I have never yet been
able to do any thing more than to glance at them, or
to take but very transient views of them, tho’ I have
several times passed by each of them. You think
Avebury to be Gorsedd Bryn Gwyddon: I should not
be very loath to swear it when I consider every
circumstance (NLW MS 13221E, 116).

Those ‘transient views’ rather undermine
earlier claims to have ‘studied’ the places at length,

and it is hard not to feel that Iolo never got round to
giving the sites his full attention. This may partly
be the effect of an increasing preoccupation with his
native Glamorgan, neatly exemplified by the
location of ‘Bryn Gwyddor’ (or, in William Owen
Pughe’s idiosyncratic orthography, ‘Gwyzon’). This
‘hill of knowledge’ is referred to in a (probably
spurious) Welsh triad (a medieval three-line verse-
form that Iolo excelled at imitating) as the site of a
bardic meeting or gorsedd, and though Iolo seems
here to accept William Owen Pughe’s identification
with Silbury in 1801, he would ultimately locate
Bryn Gwyddon at Ystradowen, near Cowbridge,
where he spent much of his life (Williams 1956,
xxxv; cf. NLW MS 13087E, 113). It is not without
irony that the man who in 1777 accused Henry
Rowlands of a local partiality to the ‘exceeding
pitiful monuments’ of Anglesey should in turn

Two watercolours by William Owen Pughe (1759-1835).
Reproduced by kind permission of the National Library
of Wales

A WELSH BARD IN WILTSHIRE: IOLO MORGANWG, SILBURY AND THE SARSENS 87

come to perceive his own county as the cradle of all
the civilizing qualities of the bardic tradition. One
can only regret that more of Iolo’s ideas on the
composition and origins of Avebury and
Stonehenge, if they were ever committed to paper in
the first place, have not survived. Though visionary
interpretations of those famous sites are not, it is
true, in short supply, the thoughts of this highly
original stonemason-scholar would have been well
worth reading.

What we have here is valuable nonetheless: on
the one hand, a clarity of observation which
provides reliable information on a key early
intervention at Silbury Hill; and on the other, a
response to the landscape which reminds us of the
context of the work of Aubrey and Stukeley. It is
something of a shock to realise that, in famously
defining the major monuments around Avebury,
these pioneers of archaeology actually diminished
what, to observers from Camden to Iolo, was their
‘true’, much vaster, scale.

Notes

' The most detailed (though unfinished) biography of Iolo
is in Welsh (Williams, 1956); for good short accounts
in English see Morgan 1975 and Jenkins 1997. A major
research project is underway at the University of Wales
Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies in
Aberystwyth: we are especially grateful to Ffion Jones
and David Ceri Jones, who are editing Iolo’s
correspondence, for making their work available. All
citations from letters and manuscripts carry National
Library of Wales numbers (hereafter NLW MS), and
preserve original spellings.

’ The citation is from the Rev James Douglas, Nenia
Brittanica (1793); Gough’s notes to his edition of
Camden’s Britannia, however, gives the finds as ‘a
rotten post and rusty knife’ (Camden and Gough, 1789
p. 110).

> Collapses around this spot also occurred in 1925 and
1933. The spoil heap left by the miners may have still
been visible in 1849, and indeed some of it may still
be present today (Field, Brown and Thomason, op cit
p 57.]

‘ There is also another Kingswood in Gloucestershire,
but it is not on a coalfield. The Kingswood Colliery,
just east of Bristol and on the London-Bristol road,
has a strong claim over all these.

> For the name see Fowler 2000, 22: Fowler also cites the
alternative names ‘Old London Way’ (1815, p.65) and
“Green Street’ (early twentieth century, p. 115). The
hollow ways are a Scheduled Ancient Monument and
are listed in the Wiltshire SMR (no SU13327091); and
by the NMR as no. SU17SW95, UID 221801. Many
possible turnings and footpaths off the turnpike are

shown on Andrews and Dury (1773).

° Gibson’s notes in his translation of Camden (Camden
and Gibson, 1695) go into further detail, suggesting
(p. 94) that such ‘cement’ was used in ancient Rome
(as indeed it was throughout the Roman world).

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Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History Magazine, vol. 97 (2004), pp. 89-94

An Early Anglo-Saxon Cross-roads Burial from
Broad Town, North Wiltshire

by Bob Clarke

A single unaccompanied burial located at a cross-roads at Broad Town, North Wiltshire, has recently been radiocarbon
dated to the 6th-7th Century AD. Its excavation forms part of the ongoing investigation, by the University of Bath in
Swindon, into settlement patterns in Kingsbridge Hundred, North Wiltshire. The results open up the possibilities of an
earlier date than hitherto supposed both for the practice of cross-roads burial and for the burial of criminals near
boundaries. The landscape context of the burial is further discussed, considering the potentially early date for what later
became a hundred boundary marked by the Broad Town escarpment.

INTRODUCTION

Project Background

On Thursday 12 October 2000 Tony and Leigh
Lucas discovered the partial remains of a human
skeleton protruding from a bank overlooking the
village of Broad Town, North Wiltshire. Broad Town
Archaeological Project (BTAP) was informed by the
County Archaeologist of the discovery and the site
was visited by two members of BTAP who reported
their findings to him. The County Archaeologist
gave full support to excavation, which took place on
11-12 November 2000.

The burial site is located on the north-west
facing chalk escarpment of the lower Marlborough
Downs, overlooking the village of Broad Town,
North Wiltshire (Figure 1), on the 175 m. contour
line at NGR SU 0955 7765.

THE BURIAL: RESULTS

Prior to excavation, a record was made of the
initially visible remains and other finds that had
eroded out of the bank. That record forms the first
part of this report.

Visible Remains in Section

The left side of the individual was exposed to the
north due to a number of factors, primarily natural
erosion and cattle interference. No grave cut was
visible in the section, but there was a slight soil
change immediately around the bones. The visible
remains were exposed for a length of 72 cm. in the
section. Depth from surface at the final visible
thoracic vertebrae was 20cm., at the femoral head
25 cm.

Protruding from the naturally formed section
were a number of bones, including seven
articulated thoracic vertebrae and the left pelvic
bone and femur, both articulated. Overlying the top
of the femur were three bones from the left hand,
probably metacarpals.

From the disposition of the bones in the section
it was possible to suggest that the head of the burial
would have lain to the south-west and that the
burial was not made in a coffin.

The Excavation

The grave cut was extremely difficult to locate as it
was not visible in the eroded section and only a

Bob Clarke, c/o Qinetiq, Boscombe Down, Amesbury, Salisbury SP4 7RE

90 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

4 |

Wroughton

Broad Town

Marlborough

Wootton

Bacseth Cuff's Corner

% é i y/, Roads “Earlier Tracks
Burial Location /f Modern ie & Footpaths

Fig 1. Burial location, with local routes and destinations

slight difference of soil matrix was noted in the
deposit above the grave. That said, the grave was
presumably rectangular in shape when first dug
owing to the position of the remains. The grave was
very shallow being on average 25 cm deep.

The Burial

The alignment of the grave was north-east to south-
west with the head to the south-west. The body lay

Fig 2. Burial viewed from the north-east

supine, with the legs straight, and the arms flexed
with the hands placed on the pelvis (Figure 2). The
left arm (upper and lower), clavicle and ribcage
were all missing, as were the cranium and
mandible, all seven cervical vertebrae and the first
four thoracic vertebrae (Figure 3). The individual
has been estimated by Jacqueline McKinley of
Wessex Archaeology as between 35-45 years old,
1.705 metres (5 ft. 7% in.) tall, and male.

Pathology

The spinal column shows the beginnings of
osteoarthritis with slight lipping evident on the
lumbar vertebrae and first three thoracic vertebrae.
Slight bone nodules on the rear of the iliac crest and
a pronounced linea aspersa on both left and right
femurs suggest the individual may have spent a
significant amount of time riding. Muscular
damage to single bones in the left hand and the left
foot also suggest horse-related injuries, perhaps
from a fall (McKinley pers com).

CERAMIC FINDS

Six ceramic sherds were recovered during the
excavation, three from the burial itself, the
remainder from the subsoil; all were inspected by
Rachael Seager-Smith of Wessex Archaeology. The
sherds spanned the Mid/Late Iron Age up to the 4th
Century AD, and their well rounded condition
suggest that they were residual.

DATING

In response to the lack of reliable dating the
University of Bath in Swindon funded a
radiocarbon determination at the Research
Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art,
Oxford. A date of 1430+-45 BP (OxA 11173) was
obtained from the right femur, which calibrates to
possible calendar date ranges of 595-665 cal AD at
68% probability or 540-680 cal AD at 95.4%
probability.

DISCUSSION

The position of the Broad Town burial is important
for a number of reasons. The site is visually
prominent over a wide area. It is situated just a few

AN EARLY ANGLO-SAXON CROSS-ROADS BURIAL FROM BROAD TOWN 91

Fig 3. Detail of the burial showing the extent of erosion.

Fig 4. Burial location in relation to cross-roads.

hundred metres north of the boundary between
Kingsbridge and Selkley Hundreds, while the spur
of land on which the burial lay is described by two
hollow ways crossing at the point where the
remains were found (Figure 4). These factors
suggest deliberate burial at a place both elevated
and inter-visible between a number of routes,
coupled with interment in unconsecrated ground
(although the burial could well be pre-conversion)
at the geographical limits of local territories. While
no evidence of trauma was found on the skeletal
remains, the incompleteness of the remains ensures
that execution cannot be ruled out.

Andrew Reynolds has demonstrated that at
least one of the cross-roads tracks is of mid to late
Anglo-Saxon date (Pollard and Reynolds, 2002,
225). This track originates in Marlborough and
traverses the Downs, past Mans Head, a possible
Hundred meeting place (Reynolds pers com.) then
down Hackpen Hill. From there it cuts across the
lower chalk terrace, in a north-westerly direction,
crossing the Kingsbridge-Selkley hundred
boundary, then down the lower escarpment, past
the burial site and on to Wootton Bassett. As the

92 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

track cuts the escarpment it is met by another
holloway from the shrunken settlement of Little
Town, forming the cross-roads element of the site.
The possibility of this track also having a mid-
Saxon date cannot be ruled out. If this is so and the
burial is purposely situated on the cross-roads it
makes, by later analogy, the possibility of execution
all the more likely.

Beyond Broad Town

The Broad Town burial mirrors traits found at
other Wessex sites, most notably that at
Stonehenge. There an executed male in his early
30s was found, probably supine, in a shallow grave
with no finds (Pitts et al. 2002, 134). This burial also
benefits from a radiocarbon determination of
1359+-38 BP (OxA-9361) & 1490+-60 BP (OxA-
9921), a weighted mean calibrates to a possible
calendar date range of 600-690 cal AD (Bayliss, in
Pitts et al. 2002,134). The grave is again situated at a
prominent place, close to the hundred boundaries
of Amesbury and Underditch (Reynolds and
Semple, in Pitts et al. 2002,142).

Another pertinent site is known at Tan Hill,
overlooking the Vale of Pewsey, where a single
unaccompanied burial was discovered in a pre-
historic ditch. It was suggested at the time of
discovery that the hands were tied behind the back,
but again no dating evidence was present (Anon,
1951, 228). This site is on a parish boundary, again in
a very prominent position, and may well be Anglo-
Saxon in date (Pollard and Reynolds, 2002, 175).

The discovery of a single unaccompanied burial
at Gomeldon also potentially fits into this picture.
Discovered in 1936, the individual was buried in a
shallow grave, having the appearance of being
thrown in and was suggested by J.ES. Stone to be a
possible hanging victim (Stone 1942,108). Again a
prominent location appears important, with the
individual interred close to the edge of the
escarpment which overlooks the river Bourne. The
burial is also just to the North-west of the original
Winterbourne to Porton road and just under 200 m
north of the parish boundary.

Beyond Wiltshire

Counties other than Wiltshire are beginning to
present similar evidence. Reynolds has demon-
strated that all known execution sites in Hampshire
lie on hundred boundaries (1999, 108-9), while

Martin Carver’s work at Sutton Hoo has shown that
prominent sites of an earlier age became the focus of
execution, during the formative phase of ‘Christian
Kingship’ (1998, 142). The comparable dates of two
of the burials described above suggest a trend in
7th-century Wessex. This would appear to
underpin the evidence from Sutton Hoo where
execution sites also seem to have started in the
seventh century (Carver 1998, 142).

The Burial in its Landscape
Context

A picture of continuity in the landscape is arguable
if consideration is given to archaeological finds and
sites in the immediate area of the Broad Town
Burial (fig 5). Evidence suggests that the escarp-
ment has been the focus of human activity since the

i ¢) ee
sy
ee

Kingsbridge

Clyffe
Pypard WE () |

Sie

eG) Seem eelidey

Fig 5. Findspots in relation to the Hundred boundary between
Kingsbridge and Selkley

% Saxon Burial

~ Roman/Saxon ?
Burial

Q Roman Pottery

+ Saxon Pottery

later prehistoric period. Ceramic finds include a
carinated sherd similar to forms from All Cannings
Cross (Goddard, 1919,353) of probable 5th century
BC date. In addition, the Broad Town burial’s grave
fill (above) and excavations at Cuff’s Corner
(Clarke 2000) have produced sherds of Late Iron
Age date. Substantial Romano-British sites are
evidenced by ceramic scatters (Goddard, 1919,353,
Clarke 2000), structures (Walters 2001,128,) and
burials (Foster 2001,171).

Romano-British burials are known from two
locations, three in Broad Town Field (Goddard,
1919,353), and nine ‘scattered’ near Cuff’s Corner
(Goddard, 1913,227); all lay under substantial
sarsen stones. While the three reported in Broad
Town Field may well be Roman in date it is not
unusual to find material from that period in graves
up to the 6/7th Century AD (White,1988,160). This

AN EARLY ANGLO-SAXON CROSS-ROADS BURIAL FROM BROAD TOWN 93

situation has also been recently addressed from an
Anglo-Saxon perspective by Helen Geake (2002,
145). The SMR (SU07NE302) suggests a single site
for all three interments, while the letter published
by Goddard gives a regular spacing and orientation
(1919,353). What is clear is that three individuals
were buried underneath presumably visible
sarsens, spaced about 200 yards apart in an east-
west line, broadly following the later hundred
boundary. Whatever their date they would seem to
be a component of the boundary at this point.

It seems likely that a linear cemetery stretches
from at least Cuff’s Corner to within 200 metres of
the Broad Town to Broad Hinton road, possibly
indicating the early foundation of what was to
become the Hundred boundary at this point. This
argument can be underpinned further by the
evidence of Saxon intervention. Chaff-tempered
pottery was located at Cuffs Corner (Anon. 1975-6,
136). A secondary burial containing glassware, an
iron spear and an amber and a glass bead was
located in a prehistoric barrow at Thornhill lane
(SMR SU07NE400), while in the 6th/7th century
the Broad Town individual was buried on the cross-
roads at the edge of the escarpment.

Based on the work of others, Ken Dark has
suggested that hundreds in Cornwall, first recorded
in the ninth century, may well have their origins in
Romano-British territorial divisions (Dark, 2000,
151). That possibility has to be considered here.
This is not to say that Selkley and Kingsbridge
Hundreds have their origins in the Romano-British
period, but that the archaeological components
coupled with the topography of the locale may well
indicate an early origin for the boundary at this
point.

CONCLUSION

It seems likely that burials such as that from Broad
Town performed a number of functions. Those at
Broad Town (Figure 6) and Tan Hill are visible
from c. 10 km. while Stonehenge is a striking
landscape feature. The position of the Gomeldon
burial adds a potential ford or river crossing to the
equation. All four places lay on tracks; clearly this
is an important component of such burials.
Exclusion from settlement would also appear to
have been a major aspect as was the role played by
emerging Christianity. The chronological closeness
of the two dated burials suggests a trend in seventh-
century Wessex that can be recognised elsewhere.

Fig 6. View from the grave looking north-west illustrating the
prominence of the site within the landscape.

It is also clear that elements of the Broad Town
landscape exhibit a multi-period chronology. This
realisation is not new in landscape studies;
research, however, tends to rely on the monumental
rather than discreet evidence. This small piece of
Wiltshire landscape may go some way to help us
understand that chronology. Ultimately the
creation of boundaries that feature so heavily in our
understanding of the development of the landscape
may have been set out far earlier than generally
thought (but cf. Bonney 1966), as appears to be the
case at Broad Town. Clearly there is much more
work to do.

Acknowledgements

This project would not have reached a conclusion
without the guidance and input of Dr Andrew
Reynolds. A very big thank you to him. Thanks also
go to: Roy Canham, Wiltshire County Archaeo-
logist; Rachael Seager-Smith and Jacqueline
McKinley of Wessex Archaeology; Malcolm
Holland and Tracey Stickler of Broad Town
Archaeology; my colleagues Colin Kirby, Mark
Brace, Mac McLellan, Brian Clarke, Barry
Huntingford and John Bastin for their support;
University of Bath in Swindon for funding the
dating; Dr Bruce Eagles and Professor Martin
Carver for their comments; Debie Edmonds of
English Heritage for documentary work. Mr R.
Horton gave permission to excavate while Leigh
and Tony Lucas are to be thanked for reporting
the initial discovery. Any errors are naturally my
own.

94 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

References

ANON, 1951. A Skeleton on Tan Hill. WANHM, 54, 228

ANON, 1975-6. Wiltshire Archaeological Register for
1974-5. WANHM, 70/71, 132-8

BONNEY, D.J., 1966. Pagan Saxon burials and
boundaries in Wiltshire. WANHM, 61, 25-30

CARVER, M., 1998, Sutton Hoo: Burial Ground of Kings?.
London: British Museum Press

CLARKE, B., 2000, Fieldwalking Results Centred on
SU08077643 Cuff’s Corner, Clyffe Pypard and Watching
Brief at 13 Broadacres. Broad Town Archaeological
Project, BTAP 5 & 6

DARK, K., 2000, Britain and the End of the Roman Empire.
Stroud: Tempus

FOSTER, A., 2001. ‘Romano-British Burials in
Wiltshire’, in P. Ellis (ed), Roman Wiltshire and After:
Papers in Honour of Ken Annable, 165-77. Devizes:
WANHS

GEAKE, H., 2002, ‘Persistent Problems in the Study of
Conversion-Period Burials in England’, in S. Lucy
and A. Reynolds (eds), Burial in Early Medieval
England and Wales, 145-55. London: Society for
Medieval Archaeology Monograph 17

GODDARD, E.H., 1913. A List of Prehistoric, Roman

and Pagan Saxon Antiquities in the County of
Wiltshire. VANHM, 38, 153-378

GODDARD, E.H., 1919. Romano-British Interments at
Broad Town. WANHM, 40, 353-4

PITTS, M., et al. 2002. An Anglo-Saxon Decapitation and
Burial at Stonehenge. WANHM, 95, 131-46

POLLARD, J., and REYNOLDS, A. 2002, Avebury: The
Biography of a Landscape, Stroud: Tempus

REYNOLDS, A., 1999, Late Anglo-Saxon England,
Stroud: Tempus

REYNOLDS, A., 2002, ‘Burials, Boundaries and
Charters in Anglo-Saxon England: a Reassessment’,
in S. Lucy and A. Reynolds (eds), Burial in Early
Medieval England and Wales, 171-195. London:
Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph 17

STONE, J.ES., 1942. A Skeleton at Gomeldon, Idmiston,
South Wiltshire. WANHM, 50, 107-8

WALTERS, B. 2001, ‘A Perspective on the Social Order of
Roman Villas’, in P Ellis (ed), Roman Wiltshire and
After: Papers in Honour of Ken Annable, 127-46.
Devizes: WANHS

WHITE, R.H. 1988, Roman and Celtic Objects from Anglo-
Saxon Graves: A Catalogue and Interpretation of their
use. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, British
series 191

Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History Magazine, vol. 97 (2004), pp. 95-8

Arable Weed Survey of a Farm in South Wiltshire

by Barbara Last

An arable weed survey of field margins cultivated for greater biodiversity under the Countryside Stewardship Scheme
has revealed the presence of rare plants, the seed of which had lain dormant in the ground for many years.

In Spring 2003 a farm in South Wiltshire applied
for and was awarded a grant under the Countryside
Stewardship Scheme to manage cultivated field
margins to improve biodiversity. The specific
objective was to enable any arable plants present to
germinate and grow outside the cropped area
without the threat of damage by herbicides or
competition from more aggressive species
encouraged by the application of fertilisers. The
margin width was set at six metres and cultivation
took place to a depth of 15 centimetres To monitor
the results a survey was made in July 2003 of
selected 100 yard sections in each margin. It was
agreed that if any margins revealed a particularly
rich diversity of flora they would be left to re-seed
themselves whereas others with poorer diversity
would be grassed over.

The soil on the farm, which may have been
under cultivation for as long as 5000 years, is
predominantly a light thin chalk, found especially
on the north west fields and those at a slightly
higher elevation. This is free draining and warm,
with a high pH. (areas including margins
C.D,E,EG,H,I, J and N on the attached map) unlike
those on the remaining fields lying adjacent to the
river Till in the south east (margins A,B,K and L)
which are of an alluvial nature.

An earlier botanical survey of the parish (made
in 1999 and 2000), which included the farm,

recorded remarkably few arable weed species. This
was expected given the landowner’s policy of
cultivating and spraying the fields to the margins
producing a clean crop, occasionally interspersed
with a grass ley. However, one notable plant found
was Venus’s Looking-glass (Legousia hybrida) six
plants of which turned up on the north east corner
of Well Down 1&2 (SU 052400).

It was anticipated in 2003 that if wild plants did
survive in the field margins they would be likely to
be relics of an ephemeral group evolved to
germinate in disturbed soils arising from clearances
in the wild wood resulting from fires and tree fall,
or later from clearance by man, or from flash floods.
Such circumstances give rise to short optimum
periods with little competition from _ other
vegetation and good light. Consequently, wild
plants are enabled to survive by production of seed
that has a long viability, good dispersal
mechanisms, and which is produced in large
quantities. Many self-pollinate, or are self-
compatible and have a short germination to
maturity time giving them a rapid life span in
favourable conditions. Such plants are thus readily
adapted to colonise clearances from the ploughing
to which arable fields are typically subject annually
or in rotation with grass leys.

The Stables, Berwick St James, Salisbury SP3 4TN

96 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE
Species (Notable Species marked *) A’ (B ¢@.3D EE GEG GH IP 2K eee Ne O
Aethusa cynapium Fool’s Parsley tse oe 1 ope. ar + + + + + +
Agrostis stolonifera Creeping Bent +
Anagallis arvensis Scarlet Pimpernel + + + ote +

Arenaria serpyllifolia Thyme-leaved sandwort +

Anisantha sterilis Sterile Brome + + +
Artemisia vulgaris Mugwort +

Carduus nutans Musk Thistle Sear ae Se +
Capsella bursa-pastoris Shepherd’s Purse + + 4+ + + + + + + + + + «4+~«4
*Chaenorrhinum minus Small Toadfloax ar ap

Chenopodium album Fat Hen +t tot + + Hot 4 + + +
Chenopodium rubrum Red Goosefoot +

Elymus repens Couch grass + - + + +
*Erysimum cheiranthoides ‘Treacle Mustard +

Epilobium parviflorum Hoary Willowherb + tf
Euphorbia helioscopia Sun Spurge + + + + +

Fallopia convolvulus Black Bindweed + + + + + + + + + + ~ + ++ +
Fumaria officinalis Fumitory +t t+ ++ + + + + + +
Galium aparine Cleevers + + 4+ 4+ 4+ + + + + $+ + 4+ + + *O+
Geranium dissectum Cut-leaved Crane’s bill ote +
Geranium molle Dove’s-foot Crane’s bill + 1 on tit
*Kickxia spuria Round-leaved fluellen +

*Lamium amplexicaule Henbit + + Ste + af
Lapsana communis Nipplewort a ar ae or + + +
*Legousia hybrida Venus’s Looking-glass ae ae ae

Linaria vulgaris Common Toadflax ee

Lolium pratense Rye grass + + ar
Matricaria matricarioides Pineapple weed + + + + + + + + Spear. ap Sue) Se
Medicago lupulina Black Medick +

Myosotis arvensis Field Forget-me-not + ott + + + +
*Papaver argemone Prickly Poppy +

Papaver dubium Long-headed Poppy ar

*Papaver hybridum Rough headed Poppy + ae Ar + ar
Papaver rhoeas Field Poppy ++ 4+ + + + + + $F + + + + + +
Pastinaca sativa Wild Parsnip 4° 4 + + +
Phleum pratense Timothy + +

Poa annua Annual Meadow grass + ar + Tea or

Poa trivialis Rough Meadow grass + + +
Polygonum aviculare Knotweed +.+ she ae +

Polygonum lapathifolium Pale persicaria +

Polygonum persicaria Redshank + + Je) ap Se
Reseda lutea Mignonette + + + + + + + +

Senecio jacobea Ragwort + +.

Senecio vulgaris Groundsel aE or Stee te ate west + +3 +
Silene alba White Campion + + + + +. 4+ +
Sinapts arvensis Charlock + + + ap
Sisymbrium officinale Hedge mustard a ate + + + +
Solanum nigrum Black nightshade + SS

Sonchus arvensis Perennial Sow-thistle + {hear + + =P) Sar
Sonchus asper Prickly Sow Thistle Toa Seer Pope oe ae ae or ste te cts
Sonchus oleraceus Smooth Sow thistle tee eats ar
Stellaria media Chickweed “+ eet te

Torilis japonica Upright Hedge-parsley +

Tripleurospermum inodorum Scentless Mayweed ap Near + + + + + + + seit
Veronica persica Field Speedwell + + Ste at ist + ae Ar
Viola arvensis Field Pansy oe ae oe Se ae Oe ne oe eae ear oe oe +
TOTAL 55 19), 17, 20 12! 27 27 32 28: 718" 24° 18-10. 18228323

ARABLE WEED SURVEY OF A FARM IN SOUTH WILTSHIRE 97

Key

A- SU0639 Yardfield SE.
D- $U0539 Rag Bake. N.
G-SU0540 Bakes SW

J- SU0540 Bakes NW
M-SU0638 Night Pasture S.

B- $U0638 Big Pasture. NE.
E- SU0539. Well Down 3 SE
H-SU0439 Well Down 1-2 NE
K- $U0638 Langford Hill NE
N-SU0539 Well House NW

C- SU0539. Well House SE.
F- SU0539. Well Down NE

I- SU0540 Lamb Down NE
L- $U0638 Langford Hill N.
O- $U0539 Langford Down E

Comments on the survey findings

The most ubiquitous weeds (occurring in most of
the 15 margins sampled) were Cleavers, (Galium
aparine), Common Poppy (Papaver rhoeas), Field
Pansy (Viola arvensis), Shepherd’s purse (Capsella
bursa-pastoris), Prickly Sow-thistle (Sonchus asper),
Black Bindweed (Fallopia convolvulus), Fool’s
Parsley (Aethusa cynapium), Fat-hen (Chenopodium
album) and Common Fumitory (Fumaria officinalis).
All are abundant and successful having the
attributes of the ephemeral group mentioned above,
as well as resistance to herbicides.

Most species of this situation are annuals, but
Wild Parsnip (Pastinaca sativa) and Perennial Sow-
thistle (Sonchus arvensis) are perennial, propagating
by means of small fragments of root regenerating
when given the opportunity.

Among the more unusual species was one plant
of Treacle Mustard (Erysimum cheiranthoides) of
which there have been only four recent previous
records in VC8, the nearest being from
Winterboume Stoke, 1986 (BG). The seeds of this
species have only a low viability although a good
plant may produce 15,000 seeds typically dispersed
by cattle. (Salisbury 1963)

There was an abundance of Round-leaved
Fluellen (Kickxia spuria) on one headland only on
the north side of Well Down3. This occurs scattered
on chalk fields in VC8 but is rapidly declining. It is
self-fertile and self pollinates, but although it has
the potential to produce 2,000 seeds per plant
(Salisbury 1963), germination is poor and it is
susceptible to herbicides.

Venus’s Looking-glass (Legousia hybrida) occurs
scattered on bare chalk and has notably declined. In

98 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

the Arable Weed Survey of South Wiltshire 1999, it
was established that prior to 1999, there were 8
sites. After this 7 were re-surveyed and plants
found on only 2, but 5 new sites had been noted.
The seeds have a very long viability and the
capsules produce about 80 seeds each resembling
minute shiny mirrors.

The Small Toadflax (Chaenorrhinum minus) also
occurs in small numbers scattered on chalky fields
and is again in decline.

There were two unusual poppies, Rough-
headed poppy and Prickly poppy (Papaver hybridum
and P argemone). Rough-headed poppy has a similar
distribution to that recorded by Grose 1957, and the
1999 survey gave 8 sites, of which 6 were re-
surveyed and plants found on only 2, but 4 new sites
were noted. The prickly poppy is scarcer. In the
1999 survey, 6 sites were recorded, of which 4 were
found not to contain the plant when re-surveyed in
1999, but 3 new sites were noted. What was most
surprising was to find them growing together.

The survey revealed the presence of several
aliens resistant to herbicides such as Pineapple weed
(Matricaria matncarioides) which was only introduced
into Wiltshire in 1925 and is now abundant. On the
farm it was present in 13 of the 15 sites. This plant
owes its success to vegetative propagation as the tiny
particles carried on tractor wheels and boots can all
germinate. Two other introductions found during
the survey were Field Speedwell (Veronica persica),
first recorded in 1859 and now abundant in
Wiltshire, and the much more recently arrived
Prickly Lettuce (Lactuca serriola) found on the edge
of Well Down 3, which is spreading rapidly.

In regard to fauna it is worth noting that many
insects attracted to the plants have also been given
an opportunity to proliferate. In particular, there
were innumerable hoverflies, Episyrphus balteatus,
probably the result of an influx of migrants from
Europe, although they do also breed here, nectaring
on the Scentless Mayweed and the Sow-Thistle
which have open flowers with easily accessible
nectar. Three other species of hoverfly Scaeva
pyrastri, another migrant, Sphaerophoria scripta and

Leucozona laternaria were also recorded. It was
encouraging to see such large numbers of these
aphid-consuming insects which would not have
been attracted to the cereal crops in the adjacent
fields.

Two areas were also sown with a wildlife seed
mix including Quinoa, a Chenopodium that
originated in Peru and is related to Fat-hen. This
produces copious seed in autumn and will be left
until March 15 to provide a food source for many
farmland birds that are also in decline. Another
area was cleared and left open to encourage Stone
Curlew although none bred on the farm in 2003.

Conclusion

The success of the Countryside Stewardship
Scheme, when applied to the creation of field
margins to promote greater biodiversity, is proved
on this farm. A remarkable number of rare and
threatened arable plants, presumably propagated
from long buried seed, were observed, some of
which have not been recorded in Wiltshire for
many years. Similarly, several plants that have been
declining in recent years were also recorded, as were
a variety of insects and birds. It is worth noting that
many other habitat enhancements have also been
recommended by DEFRA though not all were
suitable for this farm.

References

BANKS, J. 2002, Rare arable weeds in Wiltshire, Journal
of the Wiltshire Botanical Society, no 5

GILLAM, B., GREEN, D., and HUTCHISON, A. 1993,
The Flora of Wiltshire. Newbury: Pisces

GROSE, D. 1957 The Flora of Wiltshire. Devizes: WANHS

LAST, B. 2000, The Flora of Berwick St. James, Journal of
the Wiltshire Botanical Society, no 3

LAST, B. 2001, Habitats of Berwick St. James, Journal of
the Wiltshire Botanical Society, no 4

SALISBURY, E. 1961, Weeds and Aliens. London: Collins.

STACE, C. 1991, New Flora of the British Isles. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press

Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History Magazine, vol. 97 (2004), pp. 99-105

Lodowick Muggleton — Native of Chippenham?

by Kay S. Taylor

Nineteenth-century Wiltshire antiquarians Canon Jackson and Rev. Daniell both perpetuated a popular local myth
that the religious radical Lodowick Muggleton was born in Chippenham. Baptismal evidence from London, however,
is readily available to dismiss the local version as fantasy. This paper takes another look at the life of Muggleton and his
relationship to co-religionist John Reeve, and considers how the myth might have originated.

In the best traditions of the nineteenth century,
antiquarians in North Wiltshire were eager to
provide biographical details of important or
notorious figures with links to local towns and
villages. One such renowned native who was claimed
for Chippenham was the seventeenth-century
religious radical, Lodowick Muggleton. Canon J.E.
Jackson confidently asserted that this individual
was a Wiltshire man, born ‘of poor though honest
parents in the town of Chippenham’.' He
apparently based his statement on a 1676 chronicle
about Muggleton, which was reprinted in the
Harleian Miscellany in 1744,’ entitled ‘A Modest
Account of the Wicked Life of That Grand
Impostor Lodowicke Muggleton’. This work
purported to prove his professed commission from
God to curse or bless individuals ‘to be but
counterfeit and himself a cheat’.

Members of the early Wiltshire Archaeological
& Natural History Society avidly acquired
information about Muggleton, and the Society’s
collection includes a later copy of the forty-six page
treatise by John Reeve and Lodowick Muggleton
entitled, A Transcendental Spiritual Treatise upon
Several Heavenly Doctrines.2 The Library’s bound
volumes of ‘Wiltshire Tracts’ contain ‘An Account
of the Prophet Muggleton’s Sufferings in the year
1676 as related by our Friend, Mr POWELL, Who
was an Eye-witness to the whole’. This twenty-four
page account was printed in Southwark in 1808

under the cover title of ‘A True Account of the Trial
and Sufferings of Lodowick Muggleton One of the
two last prophets and Witnesses of the Spirit, left by our
Friend Powell’.* In addition, a box in the library
contains two ‘notes on distinguished Chippenham
natives’ being compiled for a nineteenth-century
article in WANHM, by unnamed authors.’ The first
appears to be by Canon Jackson, and both sets of
notes are unsympathetic to their subject, so it is
unlikely that they would want to claim him as a
‘distinguished Chippenham native’ unless they felt
sure of their facts. Unfortunately the sources used
for their information are not recorded with these
‘notes’.

Nearly forty years after Jackson’s assertion the
myth was given another airing by the Rev. J.J.
Daniell, the rector of Langley Burrell, who stated
categorically in his 1894 History of Chippenham that,
‘Ludowic Muggleton, born in Chippenham in 1609
of poor though honest parents, was by trade a
tailor’.°

Rev. Daniell admitted to using the collections of
the late Canon Jackson to supplement his own
researches. Only a few years later a correspondent
to Wiltshire Notes and Queries challenged this claim
by pointing out that Lodowick Muggleton
appeared in the parish register of St Botolph’s
Bishopsgate, London, where he was baptised as the
third child of John Muggleton. The register
recorded the births of John’s children as Margaret

5 Lee Crescent, Sutton Benger, Wilts, SN15 4SE, and University of the West of England

100 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

on 23 June 1605, Ruth on 1 November 1607, and
finally John on 30 July 1609.’ However, in his own
version of his early life Muggleton stated that:

He [1. e. John Muggleton] had three Children by my
Mother, two Sons and one Daughter, I was the
youngest and my Mother lov’d me.

So it would appear that his autobiographical
information should be treated with some caution.
The Dictionary of National Biography (D.N.B.) entry
for Muggleton reiterated the information that he was
born in Bishopsgate in 1609. However, the compiler
was wary of the accuracy of some of the
contemporary records he used for his research,
warning particularly against placing any reliance on
the so-called biography contained in the Harleian
Miscellany.” So who was Lodowick Muggleton? What
did he do to earn the title of Grand Impostor? And
why was he thought to hail from Chippenham?
Lodowick Muggleton gave his name to one of
the most enduring but peculiar religious sects to be
formed in England in the middle of the seventeenth
century, which he founded with fellow tailor, John
Reeve. The Muggletonians had no preachers and
did not follow any of the usual forms of public
worship, so their meetings were not included in the
lists of the registrar general. The members called
themselves ‘believers in the third commission’ in
recognition of their two founders’ ‘commission
from God’ which they claimed to have received in
1652. The sect was still active in 1829 when they
published the ‘Divine Songs of the Muggletonians,
> which the Rev. Daniell described as a curious
collection of words to ‘accompany the howlings of
these wretched fanatics’.'° George Williamson
talked of the Muggletonians and the Quakers as
being the only small sects from the seventeenth
century to survive into the twentieth century.'!
Daniell estimated that ‘this extraordinary set of
religionists’ only had one place of worship in
London and not three more in the whole of
England at the end of the nineteenth century.’ The
last known member of the sect, a Philip Noakes of
Matfield in Kent, died in 1979, although there may
yet be other survivors.” At its height in the later
seventeenth century the sect claimed followers in
many counties (Figure 1),'4 although apparently
none in Wiltshire, which makes the interest of
Jackson and Daniell et al all the more intriguing.
Doctrinally Muggletonians held that God was
one and eternal, with a material body; that the soul
was mortal, rising with the body at the
Resurrection; and that the world contained only

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two races — the cursed and the blessed. The sect had
no formal pattern of worship: not only did they
have no preachers but they did not pray or read
either. Members were only required to believe in
Lodowick Muggleton. His detractors labelled him
the ‘Grand Impostor’ for claiming such god-like
powers. Outwardly the sect bore some similarities
to the Quakers, calling their adherents Friends, and
being opposed to war and the persecution of
individuals for conscience sake. However
Muggleton and his supporters scorned the Quaker
doctrine of the inner light in all people and, in
return, the Quakers distanced themselves from
association with them. William Penn wrote of
Muggleton as a ‘false Prophet and Impostor, guilty
of ungodly and_ blasphemous _practices.’!®
Muggleton retaliated by referring to Penn as,

an ignorant spatter-brained Quaker, who knows no
more what the true GOD is, nor His secret decrees,
than one of his coach-horses doth.

His condemnation of the Quakers was expressed
in a number of published tracts,!’ such as ‘The
Neck of the Quakers Broken’, in 1663, and ‘The
Looking Glass for George Fox and other Quakers,
wherein they may see themselves to be Right Devils’,
in 1668. His last published work was ‘The Answer
to William Penn’, in 1673, in reply to Penn’s The
New Witnesses Proved Old Heretics of 1672.

LODOWICK MUGGLETON - NATIVE OF CHIPPENHAM? 101

In 1676 Muggleton was charged with writing ‘a
blasphemous, heretical and seditious book’.'* The
case was heard at the Old Bailey on 17 January
1677, the main plank of his defence being that, as he
had written nothing since 1673, the book in
question was covered by the 1674 Act of
Indemnity.’ Despite this the jury reluctantly
obeyed the direction of the Lord Chief Justice, who
described Muggleton as a ‘villain who is a murderer
of souls’ and found him guilty.”” He was sentenced
to the pillory for three days, to have the hangman
burn his books before his face, and to pay a £500
fine with surety for good behaviour for the rest of
his life. He was incarcerated in Newgate Prison for
non-payment of the fine. Thanks to the intervention
of his ardent supporter Nathaniel Powell he was
subsequently acquitted and discharged from
Newgate on payment of £100 bail and surety for his
future good behaviour. The arrest and _ trial
encouraged both Muggleton’s detractors and
supporters into print, producing the hostile
pamphlet ‘A Modest Account of the Wicked Life of
That Grand Impostor Lodowicke Muggleton’, as
well as Mr Powell’s sympathetic account of his
sufferings. Both accounts should be treated with
caution because of their biased approaches to their
subject. A revival of interest in the Muggletonians
in the mid-eighteenth century prompted a reprint
of the hostile article in the Harleian Miscellany of
1744, and of the “Transcendental Spiritual Treatise
upon Several Heavenly Doctrines’ in 1756.

Canon Jackson provided a simplistic biography
of the accredited founder of the sect, recounting
that Muggleton, ‘began his religious career as a
Church of England man; exchanged for Indepen-
dent; slipped off to Anabaptist; tasted Quakerism;
and finally, as might be expected, subsided into no
religion at all’.2! This derogatory attitude towards
his life has frequently been repeated by later com-
mentators, which led William Lamont to complain
that Muggleton had been subjected to a bad press
over the years.” He has been variously described as
‘a known mad-man’; ‘verging on insanity’; ‘a
product of the religious culture of the London
slums’; ‘a mad tailor’; and even as ‘an unstable and
deeply troubled neurotic who sought release from
his anxieties by acting the wild-eyed prophet’.

The D.N.B., although now somewhat dated,”
has provided a more rounded version of his life and
family connections, and also contains an account of
his co-religionist John Reeve. The compiler of both
entries was Alexander Gordon, a nineteenth-
century specialist on the Muggletonians, who had

written papers about the sect for the Liverpool
Literary and Philosophical Society.** Most of the
entry on Muggleton was concerned with his adult
life, information for which he found mainly in the
man’s own written works and letters, together with
a paper, “The Prophet of Walnut Tree Yard’,
published by the Rev. Augustus Jessopp in 1884. He
dismissed works on Muggleton and his sect by his
[i.e. Gordon’s] contemporaries, Scott and Macaulay,
as misleading. Gordon included in his account the
information that Muggleton and Reeve were
cousins, providing a family connection for their
association. It is probable that the source of this
claim was Muggleton’s own account, in The Acts of
the Witnesses,”> of the satisfaction that John Reeve’s
‘Revelation’ gave him:

For, said he unto me at that time, Cousin Lodowick,
now I am satisfied in my Mind, and know what
Revelation is ...”°

Such familial references as ‘cousin’ or ‘brother’
were commonplace in the seventeenth century to
denote a close religious, political or social
colleague,” and do not necessarily imply any actual
blood relationship. Thus, in this case, the term
could well have been used to indicate that the two
were closely connected by their common religious
experience. However, despite the fact that he did
not cite any documentary proof in support of a
family relationship, Gordon seems to have taken
the term literally and recorded a closer affiliation
than the evidence merits. Reeve was a year older
than Muggleton and they appear to have been
adults in London when they first met, as
Muggleton noted of John Reeve:

He was out of his Apprenticeship before I came
acquainted with him, he was of an Honest, Just
Nature, and Harmless.”

Had they been related by blood they would
probably have met, or at least been aware of each
other, from an early age. In chapter III of The Acts of
the Witnesses Muggleton provided some information
‘of the Birth, Parentage, and Trade, of the two
Witnesses’, listing his own parents and siblings
(although, as noted above, this should be treated
with caution), as well Reeve’s parentage. However,
he made no mention of a family connection
between them. As he had been employed by John’s
brother William, and in light of the other family
details provided, it seems unlikely that he would
have omitted such an important piece of
information — had it existed.

102 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

Muggleton was only three years old when his
mother Mary died in June 1612, and his father
remarried. Gordon did not discover any more about
his formative years, than Muggleton himself
provided in The Acts of the Witnesses, in which he
merely noted that after his mother died:

I being but young, my Father took another Wife, so I
being young was Expos’d to live with Strangers in the
Country, at a distance from all my Kindred... But it
came to pass when I was grown to 15 or 16 Years of age,
I was put Apprentice to one John Quick, a Taylor. . .”’

Thus he returned, as an apprentice, to the
Bishopsgate area of London as a young man, and
by 1631 he was working as a journeyman to
William Reeve. He would doubtless have got to
know John at this time, but the two do not seem to
have formed a close bond for about another twenty
years.

According to Muggleton’s account the Reeve
family came from Wiltshire, and the father, Walter
Reeve, was described as a gentleman and ‘clerk toa
deputy of Ireland’, of a good family that had fallen
into decay. In the D.N.B. Gordon repeated the
information that both William and John (1608-
1658) were born in Wiltshire, again probably taking
The Acts of the Witnesses as his source.*’ A search of
the North Wiltshire baptismal records of the period
has located numerous members of a Reeve’s family
in the parishes of Chippenham and Calne,
including a John Henry Reeve who was baptised in
St Andrew’s Church, Chippenham in January 1607/
8.*! This is tantalisingly close to the presumed facts
of John Reeve’s birth, but unfortunately this John’s
father was Henry not Walter, so either he was not
Muggleton’s associate or Muggleton is mistaken
about the identity of John’s father. As Muggleton’s
information on his siblings is questionable it begs
the question, if John came from the Chippenham
area and Walter was not his father, perhaps he or
John embellished the Reeve parentage to impress
their followers?

Like Lodowick, John had arrived from the
country to be apprenticed to the tailoring trade,
with his elder brother, in Bishopsgate, London,
where Muggleton’s father and siblings also lived.
The brothers were said to be Puritans originally but
‘fell away’ to the Ranters around 1645. This was
alleged to be the ruin of William, who apparently
neglected his business, took to drink, and subsisted
on charity. John came under the influence of the so-
called Ranter’s God John Robins, and became a
universalist.*”

Spiritually Muggleton became a zealous
Puritan, and remained so until the conditions of
church life began to be remodelled. He refused to
accept the new discipline of Presbyterianism,
which Thomas Hobbes, Thomas Godwin and
others were denouncing as engendering religious
despondency.** In Hobbes’s view Presbyterian
ministers:

brought young men into despair and to think
themselves damned because they could not (which
no man can, and is contrary to the constitution of
nature) behold a beautiful object without delight.**

Neither could Muggleton accept the close
fellowship of the Independents and in 1647 he
withdrew from all worship to live ‘an honest and
natural life’ as an agnostic. Many of his
acquaintances were also coming to the conclusion
that ‘there is no God but nature only’.* By 1650 he
had read translations of Jacob Boehme’s works and
been attracted by the teachings of the Ranter
prophet John Robins and the fanatical Thomas
Tany. For the next year or so he experienced
scriptural revelations and, according to Gordon
‘infected’ John Reeve with his views (although
Reeve had been exploring alternative religious
notions since coming under the influence of Robins
in 1645). In February 1651/2 Reeve announced that
he too had received a personal communication from
God, appointing him as the messenger of a new
dispensation with Muggleton as his ‘mouth’. The
two identified themselves as the witnesses, foretold
in the Book of Revelation, of a new system of faith
with the authority to pronounce on the eternal fate
of individuals, and their sect was born. They
developed their beliefs along different lines from
Robins and Tany to the extent that they passed a
sentence of eternal damnation on Robins, in 1652,
while he was imprisoned in the Bridewell at
Clerkenwell.

Although they came to be known as the
Muggletonians, there is still debate regarding the
inspiration for the sect, and if it might have
developed differently but for Reeve’s early death in
1658. The pair did not entirely agree on their
movement’s place within the religious milieu, as
Reeve sympathised with many of the tenets of
Quakerism, a stance that Muggleton did not share.
Some of his adherents kept aloof from Muggleton
and were known as Reevites or Reevonians.
Gordon’s interpretation, in the D.N.B., that it was
Muggleton who had the earliest revelations and
subsequently ‘infected’ Reeve, was based largely on

LODOWICK MUGGLETON - NATIVE OF CHIPPENHAM? 103

Muggleton’s own accounts, written after Reeve’s
death. The possibility should not be discounted
that Muggleton’s version of events was skewed,
taking for himself the pivotal role that led to the
sect’s foundation. William Braithwaite described
Reeve as the Moses of the sect with Muggleton as
his Aaron,*® and Christopher Hill also disagreed
with Gordon’s view as, in his opinion, every
significant doctrine of the Muggletonians was to be
found in Reeve’s writings. In his lifetime the books
Reeve published were attributed only to him, and
Muggleton’s association with them only came
later.” It was Reeve who formulated the six
foundations of what was to become Muggletonian
theory. According to Hill Muggleton’s own original
contributions to theology were ‘puerile or non-
existent’.** While agreeing with the need to respect
Reeve’s prime role as a co-founder of the sect
William Lamont has taken issue with Hill’s
assessment of Muggleton’s abilities. He emphasised
the continuity of the doctrine after Reeve’s death
together with Muggleton’s practical extensions of
Reeve’s ‘six principles’, as well as detailing
Muggleton’s written contributions to the religious
debate.”

Whatever the true origins of the sect’s founding
Reeve’s death deprived Muggleton of his influence
and left him to carry on their work alone.
Thereafter, Muggleton believed that God had given
him a special commission ‘to curse or bless all to
eternity, ’ and that once he had dispensed his curse
or blessing there could be no remedy, no matter
what. He continued to meet with his adherents and
to publish his opinions for many years after Reeve’s
death. After his trial and imprisonment in 1677
Muggleton seems to have opted for a quieter life,
perhaps in accordance with the terms of the sureties
he gave on his release from Newgate. He died in
London ‘on 14 March 1697/8, at the age of 88 years
7 months and 14 days’.

Having identified who Lodowick Muggleton
was, and why he was considered to be the ‘Great
Imposter, the last and most puzzling question
remains. Why was he thought to hail from
Chippenham? The baptismal evidence immediately
debunks the myth that he was born in the town, yet
local tradition continues to link him with it. The
early members of WANHS certainly took a
proprietorial interest in his activities, even though
the Muggletonian sect did not take root in the
county. Raphael Samuel has pointed out that
historians ignore oral traditions at their peril, as
they can help to expose the silences and deficiency

of the written record.*! There seems to be no
surviving documentary evidence to identify where
young Lodowick passed his formative years apart
from his own statement that he was sent to live with
‘strangers in the country’. I have been at pains to
question any actual family relationship with John
Reeve, although I would not entirely dismiss the
possibility. It is an admittedly tenuous link, but if
Reeve did come from Wiltshire, and was the son of
Walter, he might well have been related to the Reeve
families found in the Chippenham and Calne area,
and so perhaps he is the key to the local legend.
Jackson’s and Daniell’s claims for a Chippenham
connection for Muggleton, based on sources they
failed to identify, would seem more plausible if a
blood relationship existed with a Wiltshire born
John Reeve. Despite the lack of corroborative
evidence most twentieth-century historians seem to
have accepted unquestioningly the ‘fact’ given in
the D.N.B. that the co-founders of the
Muggletonians were members of the same extended
family.’? Alexander Gordon seems to have preferred
to take the term ‘cousin’ at its face value rather than
to ascertain its meaning in context in The Acts of the

Fig. 2 Lodowick Muggleton”

104 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

Witnesses, an interpretation that has persisted to the
present day. Jackson and Daniell would, doubtless,
have believed in the family connection, which
could be the origin of the presumed link with
Chippenham. If John Reeve was related to
Muggleton it would be tempting to cast a
Chippenham branch of the Reeve family in the role
of the ‘strangers in the country’ to whom the infant
Lodowick was sent. The lack of documentary
evidence means we can never be sure about where
young Muggleton spent his early life, but can only
speculate on possibilities tentatively based on local
traditions. What is clear is that he did live
somewhere ‘in the country’, and perhaps that
somewhere was Chippenham.

Notes

| Jackson, Canon J. E. ‘On the History of Chippenham’

WANHM vol. iii, 1856-1857, p.46.
‘A Modest Account of the Wicked Life of That Grand
Impostor Lodowicke Muggleton, 1676’ in the
Harleian Miscellany, reprinted 1744 and 1810, vol. viii,
p. 83.

+ This 1756 copy of A Transcendental Spiritual Treatise
upon Several Heavenly Doctrines, by John Reeve and
Lodowick Muggleton does not include the original
date of publication, but includes an account, in
sixteen chapters, of the commission they claim to
have received from Jesus in February 1651/2.

+ Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History Society
(W.A.N.H.S.) Library, Devizes: Wiltshire Tracts, 48,
A True Account of the Trial and Sufferings of
Lodowick Muggleton One of the two last prophets and
Witnesses of the Spirit, left by our Friend Powell.’
[Nathaniel Powell] (Printed for T. Fever 1808 by
Morris and Reeves, 53 Red-Cross Street, Southwark.)

> W.A.N.H.S. Library, MS Box 225, folder v.

® Daniell, Rev. J. J. The History of Chippenham,
(Houlston & Sons, London, 1894).

’ Wiltshire Notes & Queries, vol. ii, (Devizes, 1899), p.
585.

® Underwood T.L (ed), The Acts of the Witnesses: the
Autobiography of Lodowick Muggleton and Other Early
Muggletonian Writings, (Oxford University Press,
1999), the first part, chapter III, p. 31.

’ — Dictionary of National Biography (D.N.B.), vol. xiii,
(OUB 1921, reprinted 1968), p.1164.

'0 Daniell, History of Chippenham, p. 212.

'! Braithwaite, William C. The Second Period of Quaker-
ism, (1919, reprinted 1979, Sessions, York), p.671.

Daniell, History of Chippenham, p. 212.

8 Hill, Christopher, Reay Barry, & Lamont William
The World of the Muggletonians, (Temple Smith,

London, 1983), frontispiece dedication, and
Underwood, The Acts of the Witnesses, pp. 11-12.
Braithwaite, The Second Period of Quakerism, noted
Muggleton had followers in Derbyshire, and the sect
continued to meet into the early twentieth century,
holding their Yearly Meeting at the Drury Lowe
Arms in Derby.

Hill, et al, The World of the Muggletonians, map 1.
Penn, William The New Witnesses Proved Old Heretics,
(London, 1672).

Smith, Joseph, Bibliotheca Anti-Quakeriana, (London,
1873, [revised by Alexander Gordon pre-1894])
contains a bibliography of Muggleton’s works.
Wiltshire Tracts, 48, ‘A True Account of the Trial and
Sufferings of Lodowick Muggleton’ p. 3.

D.N.B. vol. xiii, p.1163, and Wiltshire Tracts, 48, p. 4.
Wiltshire Tracts, 48, p.6.

Jackson, ‘On the History of Chippenham’, p.46.
Lamont, William ‘Lodowick Muggleton and
“Immediate Notice”, in Hill et al The World of the
Muggletonians, p. 116.

The Dictionary of National Biography, from the Earliest
Times to 1900, was founded in 1882 and the
introduction to the Oxford University reprint in
1967-1968 states that “it seemed best to leave the text
unaltered.” Thus the entries by Alexander Gordon
relating to Lodowick Muggleton in vol. xiii, and to
John Reeve in vol. xvi, are as they were originally
published in 1894.

Gordon, Alexander, ‘The Origin of the
Muggletonians,’ Transactions of the Liverpool Literary
and Philosophical Society, 1869, and ‘Ancient and
Modern Muggletonians,’ Transactions of the Liverpool
Literary and Philosophical Society, 1870.

Muggleton, Lodowick, The Acts of the Witnesses of the
Spirit, an autobiographical account to 1677, was
published posthumously in 1699.

Underwood, T.L. (ed), The Acts of the Witnesses, the
first part, chapter xv, p. 51, my italics.

Chambers Dictionary (Chambers Harrap, Edinburgh,
1993) p. 392 defined ‘cousin’ as “a person belonging
to a group related by common ancestry, interests etc;
something kindred or related to another.”
Underwood, The Acts of the Witnesses, the first part,
chapter III, p. 31.

Ibid, p. 31.

D.N.B. vol. xvi, (OUP, 1921, reprinted 1968), p. 851.
W.S.R.O. 811/6: Chippenham St Andrew parish
register 1578-1644; and Calne St Mary index of
baptisms 1538-1637, marriages 1538-1837, and
burials 1637-1725.

D.N.B. vol. xvi, p. 851

Hill, Christopher, The World Turned Upside Down,
(Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1975), p. 173.
Hobbes, Thomas, English Works, VI, pp. 195-196,
cited in Hill, The World Turned Upside Down, p. 173.
Hill, The World Turned Upside Down, p. 173.
Braithwaite, The Second Period of Quakerism, p.244.

LODOWICK MUGGLETON - NATIVE OF CHIPPENHAM? 105

It is possible that A Transcendental Spiritual Treatise
upon Several Heavenly Doctrines falls into this
category, as it seems to imply (p. 40) support for all
persecuted dissenters, including Quakers, which is
unlikely to have been written by Muggleton.

Hill, Christopher ‘John Reeve and the Origins of the
Muggletonians,’ in Hill et al The World of the
Muggletonians, p.91.

Hill, Christopher and Lamont, William, “The
Muggletonians: Debate and Rejoinder, Past and

Present, no. 104, 1984, p.160.

D.N.B. vol. xiii, p.1164, and Boodle, R.W., Wiltshire
Scrapbook, vol. 2, A-D (1901-2) held at WANHS
Library, Devizes, p. 130.

Samuel, Raphael, ‘Local History and Oral History,’
History Workshop, no.1, Spring 1976.

For example Underwood repeats it in his editorial
introduction to his transcription of Muggleton’s
autobiographical The Acts of the Witnesses, p. 7.
Boodle, R .W. Wiltshire Scrapbook, p. 130.

106 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

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Fig. 1 Site Location

Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History Magazine, vol. 97 (2004), pp. 106-43

Prehistoric Settlement and Medieval to Post-

Medieval Field Systems at Latton Lands

by Dan Stansbie and Granville Laws

with contributions by Alistair Barclay, Fulie Hamilton, Elizabeth Huckerby,
Hugo Lamdin-Whymark, Ruth Shaffrey, Elizabeth Stafford, Maisie Taylor,

Jane Timby and Annsofie Witkin

Work in advance of gravel extraction by Oxford Archaeology allowed the excavation of Prehistoric and medieval
remains. A ring ditch of probable early Bronze Age date was identified but not excavated. Two linear ditches lying at
right-angles to one another, with a waterhole between, defined an area of middle Bronze Age settlement, including
several post-built roundhouses and pits. A wooden bowi came from the basal fills of the waterhole and sherds of
Deverel-Rimbury urns came from the fills of the ditch termini. An adult female burial of later Bronze Age date lay just
to the north of the settlement and several pits, also of later Bronze Age date, were discovered during a watching brief to
the south of the middle Bronze Age activity. One pit contained some disarticulated human remains. Several pits of Iron
Age date were also revealed during the course of the excavation. Ridge and furrow and ditches of medieval and Post-

medieval date overlay the Prehistoric activity.

LOCATION AND GEOLOGY

Oxford Archaeology undertook excavations north-
west of the village of Latton, which lies on the A419
to the north-west of Cricklade (Figure 1). The study
area comprised a parcel of land approximately 750
m x 450 m centred on NGR SP 07559695, lying to
the south-east of the B4696 and to the north-west of
the former Latton Creamery; it was bisected by the
route of the new A419. Lying close to the course of
the River Churn, the underlying geology is First
Terrace river gravels forming a very flat topography,
descending from about 84 m OD to 80 m OD.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL
BACKGROUND

Archaeological evidence from the environs of
Latton indicates occupation and activity from the

Neolithic period to the present day. Although there
is no certain evidence of activity prior to the
Neolithic, a few, possibly Mesolithic, flints were
found in the Creamery Field, north-east of Cerney
Wick and Beggars Field, east of Cerney Wick (CAT
1991a, 69). Neolithic monuments and evidence for
settlement in the form of flint scatters are
concentrated in the uplands of the Cotswold region
and are rare in the valley bottoms until the late
Neolithic (Darvill 1987, 46). However, an oval
enclosure south-west of Westfield Farm is
provisionally dated to the late Neolithic/early
Bronze Age (CAT 1991b, 44-5). A similar enclosure
lay to the south-east of Latton within Scheduled
Ancient Monument 900 and a Neolithic pit was
found in the same field (Mudd et al. 1999, 7). There
is no evidence for Bronze Age activity in the
immediate environs of Latton apart from that
revealed by the recent phase of work carried out by
Oxford Archaeology. However, at Cotswold

Oxford Archaeology, Janus House, Osney Mead, Oxford OX2 0ES

108 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

Community to the west were a ring-ditch, three
Beaker burials and a number of round houses, all
dating to the Bronze Age (Dennis and Laws
forthcoming). Iron Age settlement within the
Latton environs is relatively common and includes
a sub-rectangular enclosure (Wilts. SMR
SU09NE201) and pottery from evaluation trenches
in the area (CAT 1991b, 74-5). Late Iron Age
settlement was found at Neigh Bridge to the west
and there is Iron Age settlement in the area of
Ashton Keynes, also to the west of Latton. There is
an extensive Roman settlement to the west of
Latton (Scheduled Ancient Monument 899), as
well as a settlement at Field Barn within Latton and
a settlement at Neigh Bridge. Further afield,
Roman material was recovered from Weavers
Bridge near Cricklade, although the status of this
site is uncertain. To the north, there is settlement at
Witpit Copse, Preston and Worms Farm,
Siddington. The former line of the A419, that
bounded the study area to the north-east, followed
the route of Ermin Street, which linked the local
settlements to Cirencester (Mudd et al. 1999, 7-9).
There is little evidence of early medieval activity in
the area, although a few sherds of Saxon pottery
were found north-west of Latton (Mudd et al. 1999,
9) and at Ashton Keynes (Coe et al. 1991). The later
medieval settlement pattern was similar to that of
today, although a possible deserted settlement lies
between Preston and Witpit Copse to the north of
Latton. At Latton itself there is cartographic
evidence for houses lying to the west of Ermin
Street with plots running back as far as the River
Churn (Mudd et al. 1999, 9). Additionaily pottery of
12th- to 15th-century date has been recovered from
the area. Part of the infilled Thames and Severn
canal bounded the study area to the south-west, but
there are no other post-medieval features of great
significance.

EXCAVATION METHODOLOGY

The whole area was stripped of soil cover using a
mechanical excavator and the exposed gravel was
then hand cleaned. All visible features were
planned and recorded and a sample of features
excavated (Figure 2). Gravel extraction to the south
and north of the main area of middle Bronze Age
activity was monitored by watching brief and all
features were planned where they were visible. In
some cases features were not planned, as they were
only visible in section. At the time of publication,

plans relating to the watching brief phase of the
work are missing and consequently several features
containing finds, which are discussed in the
following reports, do not appear in the stratigraphic
narrative.

LOCATION OF THE ARCHIVE

The archive will be deposited with Swindon
Museum and Art Gallery, accession no. B1997/4.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL
DESCRIPTION

Middle Bronze Age Features

Enclosure 785 (Figures 2 and 3)

Two ditches (783 & 784) lying at an approximate
right-angle to one another formed two sides of a
possible enclosure measuring approximately 70 m
by 70 m, with an internal area of about 4900 m2.
The ends of the ditches lay 20 m apart leaving a
substantial north-east facing entrance which was
partially blocked by a waterhole and several pits.

Ditch 783

Ditch 783 was linear, 69.2 m in length and
orientated east-west. It curved around to the south
at its eastern end. It was 1.2 m wide and averaged
0.7 m in depth. In profile the ditch was generally U-
shaped, although in places the base narrowed
forming a V-shape. The ditch terminals at both
ends were squared off. There were at least four
recuts. The fills were predominately of silty clay,
although there were some sandy silts. Middle
Bronze Age pottery was found in the fills,
concentrating particularly in the terminals (Figures
16.1-16.5). Two environmental samples (sample
nos. 6 and 15) were taken from the lower fills of the
eastern terminal (Figure 4 and Table 3) and three
fragments of burnt bone came from fills 373 and
381. A large fragment of cylindrical fired clay
loomweight (sf 121, Figure 19) came from fill 373, a
small piece of amorphous fired clay came from fill
585 and a small amount of burnt stone came from
fill 573.

Ditch 784
Ditch 784 was linear, 53 m in length and orientated
north-south. It curved round to the west at its

PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENT AT LATTON LANDS 109

Figure 14
\_ Ring Ditch
MS

Fig. 2 Area of Excavation and Watching Brief

southern end. It was 1.2 m wide and averaged 0.9 m
in depth. In profile it was generally U-shaped,
although the base narrowed to form a V-shape in
places. There were at least four recuts. The ditch
terminals were rounded. The fills were
predominantly silty clays or clay silts with some
silty sands. Middle Bronze Age pottery was
recovered (Figures 16.6-16.7), with concentrations
in the terminals, along with fragments of burnt
limestone rubble. Five environmental samples
(sample nos. 5, 17, 18, 19 and 20) were taken from
the fills (Figure 4 and Table 3). Animal bone,
(including cattle bone and the mandible of a dog
from the northern ditch terminal), was recovered
from the fills.

Waterhole 421 (Figures 3 and 5)

Waterhole 421 was oval in plan and asymmetric in
profile, having a steeply sloping eastern side and a
more gradual western side. It was orientated
north-south and measured 9.5 m in length by 7 m
in width and 1.26 m in depth. The waterhole was

filled predominantly with silty clays interspersed
with lenses of sand and sandy clay. The basal fill
(420) was a sterile sandy gravel with lenses of clay.
Overlying this were layers of silty clay (481 and
480) containing much_ organic’ material,
interspersed with a layer of sand (504). The upper
half of the waterhole was filled with layers of
sandy clay (419, 418) overlain by a deposit of silty
clay (417), all containing burnt limestone rubble.
All the fills contained sherds of middle Bronze
Age pottery (see Figures 17.9-17.13 for an
illustrated selection). Fragments of a distinctive
round-based wooden bowl (Figure 19) as well as
some unworked wood (yielding radio-carbon dates
of 1440-1210 BC and 1440-1130 BC at two sigma)
came from layer 481, which overlay the basal gravel.
A pollen sample (sample 9) was taken from the
lower fills (Figures 5 and 20). Animal bone,
including cattle, horse, pig, sheep/goat, red-deer
and dog, was spread throughout the fills. Three
fragments of worked red deer antler came from fills
418 and 480.

110 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE.

Waterhole

/ 421
Sample no.s Gs
Posthole group 154+6
787 o ? 351
6

———... Sample no.s

7
348_¢ © |'7,8, 910, 14, 12, 13444

A
345 oe

___—— Sample no.s
5, 17, 18, 19 + 20

Structure
538

Posthole group

788 ©
, 484
482

Structure
ae

Middle Bronze
Age Activity

Fig. 3 The Middle Bronze Age Settlement

PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENT AT LATTON LANDS 111

Ditch 784
E
SS 367), <S
Se <5) A K20>
e * : e368
‘ ® ; a
\ 368 I /
\ aan %
N (18> 397 /
. INS 268/
a alr /
ee ae eN — if /
hie A
ie
a a aah 366

Ditch 783
W 93.23 m N
= aie
©
4 , “497
NG 548,
NG a8 7
486
Ditch 784
NNE S N
83.19'm 83.05 m
aes a as a ars 1
i SiN ej
\
1 456 \ 454 | 453
ietths See!
\ » od ‘
\ | | ZS, Environmental
\id5 7 ee \/ sample
: = al

Sand/grave}

Clay

4
| Burnt stone
im

Charcoal

Fig. 4 Middle Bronze Age Ditch Sections

Circular Structures/Roundhouses

Two circular structures, interpreted as roundhouses,
were identified: structure 538, 8 m to the south of
ditch 783 and about 10 m from its western terminal
and structure 297, 90 m to the south of ditch 783.
No associated occupation levels or deposits were
preserved.

Structure 538 comprised a ring of nine
postholes (515, 517, 537, 523, 525, 535, 446, 444,
442) forming a circle 7.2 m in diameter (Figure 6).
The postholes, some of which were oval and some of
which were circular, averaged 0.54 m in length, 0.5
m in width and 0.11 m in depth. A 2.6 m wide gap
in the south-east of the post-ring is interpreted as an
entrance. Three postholes (519, 521, 528), forming a
triangle, lay immediately to the south-west of the
structure and may have been associated with it.
They averaged 0.48 m in length, 0.43 m in width
and 0.12 m in depth. No pottery was recovered from
the posthole fills which were mostly clay silts with
little stone or gravel.

Structure 297 comprised a ring of nine
postholes (287-95 inclusive) forming a circle 6.5 m
in diameter (Figure 7). The postholes averaged 0.25
m in diameter and 0.07 m in depth. There was a 4 m
gap in the south of the post-ring, but this seems too

large for an entrance gap and indicates that some
postholes did not survive. There were no other
obvious gaps to indicate an entrance. The postholes
were filled with a brown silty clay loam containing
occasional charcoal flecks and occasional gravel;
none contained artefacts.

Posthole groups

Posthole group 787 (Figure 3) was a randomly
spaced group of six postholes, situated immediately
to the north of ditch 783, about 26 m from its
western terminal. The postholes were generally
circular in plan and U-shaped in profile. They
averaged 0.33 m in diameter by 0.13 m in depth and
were filled with a grey-brown silty clay with some
sand. No artefacts were recovered.

Posthole group 788 (Figure 3) was a
curvilinear arc of four postholes approximately 16
m in length, orientated north-south. Of the four
postholes only two (482 and 484) were excavated.
One of the excavated postholes was oval in plan,
the other was circular; both were U-shaped in
profile. The two unexcavated postholes were
circular in plan. The excavated postholes averaged
0.36 m in diameter and 0.16 m in depth, and were
filled with a mid grey-brown silty clay containing

112 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

Fig. 5 Section Through the Middle Bronze Age Waterhole

some gravel and charcoal. No artefacts were
recovered.

Pits

There were eight large pits, seven of which
clustered on either side of the gap between the
ditches to the south of waterhole 421; the eighth lay
0.6 m to the west of ditch 784 and 32 m from its
northern terminal (Figures 3 and 9). The pits were
broadly similar but differed in details of dimension
and profile. Recuts were fairly common, but more
often than not these took the form of shallow scoops
rather than full scale clean outs. Although infill
deposits differed, a relatively simple sequence of
fills indicates infilling by natural erosion and
weathering rather than through deliberate
backfilling. Only pit 369 contained middle Bronze
Age pottery, although all lay within the area of the
middle Bronze Age enclosure and respected the
enclosure ditches and the waterhole, suggesting
broad contemporaniety.

Pit 345 (Figure 9) was circular in plan and bowl-
shaped in profile, having a flat base and steep
slightly convex sides. It measured 0.75 m in
diameter and 0.2 m in depth. The pit was filled by a
mid brown silty clay (345) containing occasional

515 s.209 S. 188

L/ |i 442

308
ior)
©

5.214 Structure 538 (ys. 190

528 8,218

525
le )-'
ate ae, 523

Fig. 6 Structure 538

pieces of gravel and moderate amounts of sand. A
bowl-shaped recut 0.57 m in diameter by 0.1 m in
depth cut the fill, and was filled by a light grey silty
clay (343) containing occasional pieces of rounded
gravel. Neither fill contained artefacts.

Pit 348 was circular in plan and bowl-shaped in
profile, having a flat base and steeply sloping
slightly convex sides (Figure 9). It measured 0.75 m
in diameter by 0.2 m in depth. The pit was filled by
a mid brown silty clay (347) containing moderate
amounts of gravel and a little sand. A bowl-shaped
recut 0.45 m in diameter by 0.1m in depth cut the
fill, and was filled by a light grey silty clay (346)
containing occasional pieces of rounded gravel and
burnt limestone rubble.

oy 295

Structure 297

Fig. 7 Structure 297

Pit 351 was circular in plan and bowl-shaped in
profile, with a flat base and steeply sloping sides
(Figure 9). It measured 0.55 m in diameter by 0.16
m in depth. The pit was filled by a mid brown silty
clay containing moderate amounts of gravel (350).
A bowl-shaped recut 0.42 m in diameter and 0.12 m
in depth cut the fill; it was filled by a light grey
silty-clay containing occasional rounded gravel
(349). Neither fill contained artefacts.

Pit 356 was oval in plan and saucer-shaped in
profile, having a flat base and shallow steeply
sloping sides (Figure 9). It measured 0.7 m in
length by 0.55 m in width and 0.05 m in depth. It
was filled by a grey-brown silt (355) containing
some gravel and sand. No artefacts were recovered
from the fill.

Pit 365 was circular in plan and U-shaped in
profile, having a flat base and near vertical sides

PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENT AT LATTON LANDS

Fig. 8 The Middle Bronze Age Pit Group

s. 203

113

114 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

= Ss
83.15m
Ee 83.20 m
an \. 346 es
347
=~
344 348
“345
& Ww E Ww
2 83.20 m 83.21 m
) ' root disturbance
350 351
SW NE
83.16 m
355
356
Ss N
83.04 m 83.26 m
AS 7
“369
83.23 m
Sand/gravel

Charcoal

Fig. 9 Sections Through the Middle Bronze Age Pits

PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENT AT LATTON LANDS 115

(Figure 9). It measured 0.95 m in diameter by 0.55
m in depth. With the exception of a single layer of
clay (357) at the top, the pit was filled by numerous
layers of silty clay. Within these deposits there were
five distinct discontinuities indicating hiatuses
within the infilling process, including two recuts.
The primary fill (364) occupied the bottom western
corner and displayed a steep inclination down from
the western edge of the pit. Above this were two
layers of light brown silty clay with sand and gravel
(363 and 362) lying horizontally. A bowl-shaped
recut measuring 0.95 m in diameter by 0.36 m in
depth cut the upper of these two fills. It was filled
by three layers (359 — 361 inclusive) of grey-brown
silty clay containing flecks of charcoal, sand and
gravel. A second bowl-shaped recut measuring 0.84
m in diameter by 0.16 m in depth cut the upper of
these three fills. Two layers (358 and 357), the lower
of which was a silty clay containing occasional
gravel 0.14 m in depth, filled it. Overlying this was a
grey blue clay (357) 0.08 m in depth and containing
burnt limestone rubble. Pit fill 363 contained large
animal long-bones of indeterminate species.

Pit 369 was circular in plan and U-shaped in
profile, having a rounded base and near vertical
sides (Figure 9). It was 0.75 m in diameter and 0.58
m in depth. With the exception of a single layer of
sandy clay at the base, the pit was filled with layers
of silty clay. The primary fill (396) occupied the
lower 0.08 m of the pit and comprised a grey-yellow
sandy clay. Overlying this was 0.29 m of dark
yellow-grey silty clay (395) with charcoal flecks and
some sand. The upper 0.21 m of the pit was
occupied by dark grey-brown silty clay containing
some charcoal and burnt clay (370). All three layers
contained middle Bronze Age pottery.

Pit 472 was oval in plan and bowl-shaped in

_ profile, having a rounded base and steeply sloping

|
|

sides (Figure 9). It was 1.6 m in length by 1 m in

width and 0.56 m in depth. The lower 0.43 m of the
pit was filled with a dark brown silty clay loam
(473), containing occasional flecks of charcoal and
pieces of gravel, but no finds. Overlying this was a
very dark greyish-brown silty clay (474) 0.06 m
thick, with occasional charcoal flecks and pieces of
gravel. Much burnt stone was recovered from this

_ upper fill.

Pit 477 was oval in plan and U-shaped in
profile, having a rounded base and steeply sloping
sides (Figure 9). It measured 1.3 m in length by 1 m
in width and 0.65 m in depth. The pit was filled

| with layers of silty clay with a single recut. The

lower 0.46 m of the pit was filled with a dark brown

Modem ground level

Stripped ground level

Sand/gravel

| Peaty clay

Fig. 10 Section Through the Late Bronze Age Pits

silty clay (478) containing charcoal flecks, pieces of
gravel and limestone fragments. An irregular recut
0.94 m in width by 0.18 m deep cut this fill. The
recut was filled with a dark greyish-brown silty clay
(479) containing charcoal flecks, gravel and burnt
stone.

Pits 1750 & 1754 (Figure 10)

To the south of the middle Bronze Age enclosure
two more pits were observed in section during the
watching brief but not in plan due to the similarity
of their fills to the surrounding natural. Neither of
these pits contained dating evidence, although one
(1750) contained some disarticulated human
remains of possible middle or late Bronze Age date.

Pit 1750 measured 0.68 m in width by 0.68 m in
depth, and was U-shaped in profile with a narrow
central sump approximately 0.20 m in width by
0.12 m in depth. The lower 0.22 m of the pit was
filled by a mid brown-grey sandy clay (1751).
Overlying this was 0.28 m of dark brown slightly
peaty clay (1752). The upper 0.18 m was filled by a
mid-blackish grey silty clay (1753). All fills
contained organic material. A human cranium and
femur came from fill 1751 (Table 15), along with a
polishing stone.

Pit 1754 measured 0.46 m in width by 0.41 min
depth, and was flat based with steep sides, one
slightly concave the other slightly convex. The pit
was filled by a light-grey sandy clay (1755)
containing some gravel and charcoal.

Burials (Figure 11)
Burial 651 could not be located on the overall site
plan as it was recorded under salvage conditions

116 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

N Vea
A —__——
640
a mae Ba : ~ 4
! ae
= I~
lan r la
H i »
Bim
A
ve a)
/ :
= 640
Sand/gravel
0 tim
ce Dee AA
Staining from body

Fig. 11 Section Through the Late Bronze Age Inhumation

during the watching brief; no dating evidence was
recovered from the fills. The burial comprised a
crouched inhumation of a female aged 25 — 35,
lying on the right side in an oval pit (640) with a
U-shaped profile, measuring1.44 m in length by 1
m in width and 0.78 m in depth. The lower 0.04 m
of the pit was filled by a light brown sandy gravel
(653), overlain by 0.26 m of dark reddish-brown
silty clay (652) containing gravel and burnt
limestone fragments. Overlying this was a thin
(0.03 m) layer of dirty sandy gravel with lenses of
dark grey silt (654). The upper 0.45 m of the pit was
filled by a greyish brown silty clay loam (641)
containing charcoal flecks, gravel and fragments of
burnt limestone. No pottery was recovered from the
fills.

Other Features

A number of amorphous pits, scoops and postholes
clustered along the edges of the ditches and in the
area defined by them. Although unexcavated and
therefore undated, their relationship to the ditches
and other middle Bronze Age features suggests that
they were contemporary.

Iron Age Features

A number of features including pits and ditches lay
to the north and east of the middle Bronze Age
enclosure, and many of them may be Iron Age in
date. These included pit 428 to the north-east of
ditch 783 (Figure 12).

Pits

Pit 428 was sub-circular in plan and U-shaped in
profile, having a rounded base and steeply sloping
sides (Figures 12 and 13). It was 1.2 m in length by
0.9 m in width and 0.6 m in depth. With the
exception of a layer of silty gravel at the base, the pit
was filled by layers of silty clay. The primary fill
(429) was a mid grey-brown silty gravel 0.43 m
thick, displaying a steep inclination down from the
western edge of the pit. Overlying this was a 0.30 m
thick mid greyish brown silty clay (430) containing
some gravel, displaying a steep inclination down
from the eastern edge of the pit. Overlying this was
a mid brownish-grey silty clay (431) 0.44 m thick,
from which 26 sherds of Iron Age pottery were
recovered.

Undated Features

Ring Ditch (Figure 14)

Part of a ring ditch was found in a small trench on
the western side of the footprint for the new A419,
about 160 m from the middle Bronze Age
enclosure. This feature was associated with a dense
scatter of amorphous pits. It was decided to
preserve these features im situ and they were
therefore left unexcavated.

Pits (Figure 12)

Miscellaneous pits, some quite irregular, were
found in all areas of the site. Some may have been
tree-throw holes. A substantial pit (406) was cut by
ditch 784 making it earlier than the middle Bronze
Age settlement enclosure, although it contained
middle Bronze Age pottery and is therefore
described in detail below.

Pit 406 (Figures 12 and 13) was sub-circular in plan
and U-shaped in profile, having a rounded base and
steep slightly convex sides. It was 2.55 m in length
by 1.1 m wide and 1.1 m in depth. With the
exception of a single layer of silty sand at the base,
the pit was filled by layers of silty clay, with two
recuts. The primary fill (407) was of light brown

PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENT AT LATTON LANDS

Fig. 12 Iron Age Activity and Undated Features

lron Age Activity

Undated feature

117

118 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

82.96 m

Ditch 784

Sand/gravel

Ring ditch

Dark-brown silty clay loam

Brown gravel/sandy silt

s Furrow \
Light-brown silty clay loam

40940
{ 1060
\
if

(

Pit group \ 4
Nain}
ALN

\
7
‘

1
'
1
!
1
i
i
U
/ )
{ es
! M
i
1
1
\
i)
{
\
\
\

Si Furrow +
~ 7

ie} nae 10m

Fig. 14. The Ring Ditch

Fig. 13 Sections Through the Iron Age Pits

silty sand with frequent inclusions of gravel 0.07-
0.1 m thick. A U-shaped recut measuring 1m in
width by 1 m in depth truncated this fill. Three
layers (408-410) of dark greyish-brown silty clay
with inclusions of charcoal flecks and small
amounts of gravel and sand filled this recut. Layer
409 contained two sherds of middle Bronze Age
pottery (which may have been intrusive from ditch
784) and two fragments of cattle bone. A second
recut, this time bowl-shaped and measuring 0.7 m
in width by 0.34 m in depth, cut the upper of the
three fills. This was filled by a single layer (411) of
dark-brown silty clay containing patches of gravel
and charcoal, and a quantity of burnt limestone
rubble.

Miscellaneous Features

A number of features including pits and ditches lay
to the north east and south of the middle Bronze
Age enclosure. These were observed during the
watching brief phase of the work.

PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENT AT LATTON LANDS 119

Fig. 15: Medieval Field Systems and Post medieval Features
Medieval Activity (Figure 15)

Ridge and furrow was found over the entire site,
running both north-east/south-west and north-
west/south-east. Two irregular ditches approxi-
mately 60 m apart lay to the south of the middle
Bronze Age enclosure. These both ran NE-SW
and the space which they enclosed may have
formed some kind of stock enclosure. These may
be related to further linear ditches, possibly
defining enclosures to the west of the ridge and
furrow.

Post-Medieval Activity (Figure 15)

A rectangular enclosure measuring approximately
120 m by 60 m overlay the more irregular medieval
field boundaries. To the west of this feature,
defining the western limit of the ridge and furrow,
was a series of north-west/south-east orientated
ditches, that in places appeared to define a trackway
running along the edge of the medieval field
system. Despite this, its fills produced more Post-
medieval than medieval pottery. A substantial stone

lined drainage culvert orientated north-west/south-
east lay to the west of these ditches.

THE FINDS

The Pottery
by Fane Timby

Introduction

An assemblage of some 1158 sherds of pottery
weighing 10.1 kg was recovered. Whilst the bulk of
the assemblage, some 963 sherds, 83% by count,
dates to the middle Bronze Age, sherds of Iron Age,
medieval and Post-medieval date are also present.
The pottery is of variable condition; substantial
parts of vessels were present alongside isolated
sherds but the nature of the fabrics has led to
considerable fragmentation. Certain contexts
produced just small crumbs.

Methodology
The assemblage was sorted into fabrics on the basis
of macroscopically visible inclusions present in the

120 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

A .

° ; o

Perforation—

0 250 mm
= Err

Fig. 16 Deverel-Rimbury Pottery (Sherds 1-8)

PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENT AT LATTON LANDS 121

clay following the recommended guidelines for
analysing prehistoric pottery (PCRG 1992).
Further subdivision was made on the size and
frequency of the aplastic inclusions. The sherds
were quantified by sherd count and weight for each
excavated context. The resulting data was entered
onto an Excel spreadsheet, a copy of which is
deposited with the site archive. Fabrics were
assigned to periods mainly on the basis of the
occurrence of diagnostic sherds or by the
association of fabrics where such sherds were
absent or inconclusive.

Middle Bronze Age

A total of 963 sherds can be assigned to the middle
Bronze Age Deverel-Rimbury tradition. The
greatest concentration of sherds came from the
northern enclosure ditch (783), 522 sherds (6615 g),
although over 75% of these came from just two
urns. The eastern enclosure ditch (784) produced
78 sherds (394 g), whilst the waterhole (421) yielded
154 sherds (1572 g).

Description of fabrics and associated forms

SHELLI1: Dense fossil shell-tempered ware. A
generally reddish-orange to brown exterior with a
dark grey black interior and core. The paste
contains a common frequency of fossil shell mainly
aligned to the vessel walls and up to 5 mm in size.
The shell has a clean, fresh appearance, quite white
in colour. At x20 magnification a rare frequency of
limestone ooliths and other fossiliferous detritus
(coral, foraminifera) is visible.

This is the commonest of the middle Bronze
Age fabrics with at least 322 sherds (1338 g).
Amongst the sherds are both thick-walled urn-like
material (10 mm), medium walled sherds (7-10
mm) and thinner-walled sherds (6 mm and less).
Featured sherds include those from bucket-shaped
urns with expanded rims, either plain (Fig. 16.5) or

externally slashed (Fig. 17.14), a smaller jar or urn

with a finger groove below a flat-topped expanded

rim (Fig. 16.3) and an everted rim jar with internal

finger tipping (Fig. 17.15). A bodysherd from

_ waterhole 421 has diagonal slashed decoration (Fig.

17.11). A simple jar rim from waterhole 421 has

| finger-tipped decoration on the exterior, whilst a

carinated bodysherd from the same context has
finger-tip depressions below the carination. One
rimsherd from (367) appears to belong to a vessel

| with splayed walls (Fig 16.7).

This ware was distributed across a_ large
number of features with the main concentrations

coming from the waterhole, 421, which produced
48 sherds, the terminal of the eastern enclosure
ditch, 321, with 26 sherds, the northern enclosure
ditch, sections 383 and 412, yielded 68 sherds, pit
369 contained 61 thin-walled sherds and pit 688
produced 21 sherds. It is associated with fabrics
GRSH, SHELL2-3, and FLINT.

SHELL2: Shell and limestone-tempered ware.
A black fabric with a sandy texture, but very friable.
The paste contains a common frequency of fossil
shell mixed with discrete ooliths and other
fossiliferous matter. These are more frequent in
occurrence compared to SHELL1. Occasional shell
fragments up to 8 mm in size but mainly finer.

Vessels include a plain-watied jar with a slightly
internally bevelled rim (Fig. 17.10) and a large
curved wall jar with a line of finger-tipped
impression below the rim (16.6). Not a common
fabric with only 26 sherds recorded from just three
contexts, two from the eastern enclosure ditch (366
and 450) and waterhole 421. It is associated with
fabrics SHELL1, GROG, GRSH and SHELL 3.

SHELL3: Fossil-shell tempered ware. A
moderately thick-walled ware with an orange
exterior and outer core and black interior and inner
core. The paste contains a sparse to moderate
frequency of fine fossil shell up to 1 mm in size
mixed in with occasional bryozoa and occasional
discrete limestone ooliths. A moderately rare fabric
represented by just nine unfeatured sherds from the
eastern enclosure ditch (784).

SHELL6: shelly ware. An orange-brown ware
with a dark grey core. Moderately hard fabric with
occasional voids and a sparse frequency of coarse
fossil shell up to 8mm across. The ware has a
laminar, hackley fracture. A total of 24 unfeatured
sherds were recovered from the northern enclosure
ditch (783) suggesting this is a middle Bronze Age
fabric.

GROG: Grog-tempered ware. A moderately
hard, orange-brown ware with a black interior
surface and inner core. The slightly sandy textured
paste contains a common frequency of sub-angular
grog, up to 7 mm in size. At x20 magnification the
matrix contains very fine sand and fine mica.

Vessels include at least two bucket-shaped urns
with expanded rims from the northern enclosure
ditch, 783, and waterhole 421. The urn from 421,
represented by at least 85 sherds, has finger-pressed
decoration on the outer rim edge and a finger-
pressed cordon around the body. In addition, the
waterhole produced two decorated bodysherds, one
with a vertical applied rib, the other with two

THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

dark grey-black core. The paste contains
a common frequency of angular, white,
calcined flint of variable size, the larger
fragments up to 5 mm across. The ware,
although hard, has a friable, hackley
fracture. At x20 magnification very fine

Fig. 17 Deverel-Rimbury Pottery (Sherds 9-16)

opposed diagonal ribs below a step in the profile
(Fig. 16.8). A similar fabric was used for a small
vessel with a plain undifferentiated rim from ditch
terminal 383 (Fig. 16.2).

GRSH: Grog and fossil shell-tempered ware.
An orange-brown ware containing a_ sparse
frequency of fossil-shell up to 2 mm in size. At x20
magnification the paste shows a light scatter of
rounded quartz and red iron along with a sparse
frequency of clay pellets or grog. The latter is sub-
rounded in shape with pieces up to 3 mm in size.

A total of eight sherds were recovered in this
fabric of which only one was featured, a thin-walled
vessel with a plain, — slightly flattened
undifferentiated rim from 783. Other sherds were
recovered from both the enclosure ditches, sections
366, 383 and 512 and pit 609.

FLINT1: Coarse flint-tempered ware. A patchy
black, mid brown to orange-brown surface with a

sparse white mica flecks, sparse fine
rounded quartz sand and rare red iron
grains are visible.

Diagnostic forms include the
substantial part of a cordoned bucket urn
with a slash decorated rim and a finger-
pressed cordon (Fig. 16.1) from ditch 783.
The vessel has fragmented into some 398
sherds (5928 g) distributed across contexts
(371-3). Approximately 67% of the rim is
present. This shows a slightly expanded
form particularly on the internal face. The
vessel has been perforated before firing at
least three times, one hole being above the
cordon, one below but in a different area
of the pot and one uncertain.

Further single flint-tempered sherds
of similar character came from ditches
397, 412 and 427. These sherds were of
medium thickness, that is around 8mm,
thus falling slightly below that exhibited
by the urn sherds.

FLINT2: Fine flint-tempered ware.
A moderately hard dark brown to black
ware. The paste contains a moderate
frequency of fine calcined, angular flint,
up to | mm in size but mainly finer. The
surfaces are relatively smooth and show finer
inclusions, suggesting the vessel walls have been
wet smoothed.

Represented by a single thin-walled sherd with
faint traces of lightly tooled decoration (Fig 16.4)
from ditch 783. The association of this sherd with a
sizeable collection of middle Bronze Age shelly and
coarse flint-tempered ware suggests that it should
be seen as contemporary, perhaps from a Decorated
Globular urn.

Discussion

At least six fabrics have been distinguished with
definite middle Bronze Age associations, four
shelly wares ( SHELL1-3, 6), one grog-tempered
ware (GROG) and one _ flint-tempered ware
(FLINT). To these can probably be added the grog
and shell-tempered ware GRSH, although the
chronology of this is less clear, and the single fine
flint-tempered sherd (FLINT2). In total these

PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENT AT LATTON LANDS 123

account for some 963 sherds (8987 g). Many of the
sherds appear to derive from single vessels, in
particular with 348 sherds from one flint-tempered
urn and 85 sherds from a grog-tempered urn, both
deposited in the northern enclosure ditch (783).

The wall thicknesses suggest a range of vessel
types are present ranging from bucket-shaped
cordoned urn to smaller jars while several vessels
show evidence of decoration. The jars mainly have
simple undifferentiated rims although one is
everted (Fig .17.15). At least one of the thinner
walled vessels is carinated. Although no complete
profiles have been drawn there is probably at least
one reconstructable urn from the eastern terminal
of the northern enclosure ditch (783).

Several typological parallels exist for the urn

material with its distinctively expanded rim form.
Bucket-shaped vessels occur in the classic Deverel-
Rimbury assemblages of central Wessex, such as
Thorny Down, Wiltshire (Stone 1941) and the
Dorset area (Calkin 1964), Cranborne Chase
(Barrett 1991) as well as in the Thames Valley
(Barrett 1974). At least one of the urns from Bevan’s
Quarry, Gloucestershire round barrow assemblage
had a similarly expanded rim form to the Latton
examples (O’Neil 1967, fig 3.5). The presence of
pre-firing perforations is also a recurrent feature
seen elsewhere, for example at Bray (Cleal 1995, fig.
18. p8-9, p17), Sunbury (Barrett 1974, figs 2.19, 22,
26) and Acton (op. cit. fig 4).
_ The use of finger-tip decoration on non-urn
material is well documented elsewhere, for example,
pottery from the Cranborne Chase middle Bronze
Age settlement enclosures (Barrett 1991). A parallel
for the splayed wall vessel from (367) (Fig. 16.7) can
be found amongst the middle Bronze Age material
published from Bray near Maidenhead (Cleal 1995,
P13). The Bray group also contained bucket-shaped
urn and a small number of carinated sherds.
Although a possible late Bronze Age date for the
latter was considered, it was concluded that the
carinated sherds, although not typical, were
contemporary with the middle Bronze Age
assemblage (ibid 29).

Globular Urn is also present in the assemblage
represented by the decorated fine flint-tempered
sherd and possibly some of the thinner-walled
carinated sherds. Comparable material with lightly
tooled decoration is recorded from the Bournemouth
area (Calkin 1964, fig 10) and Kimpton, Hampshire
(Ellison 1981). Traditionally such material has a
distinctive Wessex association, but the presence of
Globular Urn is now documented from the Thames

Valley, for example at Bray, Maidenhead (Cleal
1995), Newbury (Timby pers comm), Yarnton
(Barclay pers comm), Horcott (Lamdin-Whymark
forthcoming) and Abingdon (Avery 1982, 26-32).

The juxtaposition of three fabric types at
Latton perhaps reflects the location of the site in
the Thames Valley between the Cotswolds to the
north-west and the Marlborough Downs to the
south-east. The shelly wares suggest a Jurassic
source in the Cotswold region and a similar fabric
was used to form the cordoned urns recovered from
Bevan’s Quarry round barrow, Temple Guiting
(O’Neil 1967, fig. 3). The flint-tempered tradition is
perhaps more typical of the south and this is the
main component of the middle Bronze Age vessels
recovered from the Thorny Down settlement,
Wiltshire (Stone 1941) and the Cranborne Chase
sites (Barrett et al. 1978).

Components of the assemblage were thus
apparently being imported and few, if any, of the
vessels support a source from the immediate
locality. Few other settlement assemblages from the
immediate area compare with the Latton
assemblage although the juxtaposition of large urn
and smaller plain and decorated vessels is seen at
other domestic sites such as South Lodge, Dorset
(Barrett 1991) and Thorny Down. Analysis of
pottery from middle Bronze Age sites on Cranborne
Chase highlighted Martin Down as having a
different ceramic pattern to some of _ its
contemporary sites. It showed a wider range of
sources and has other elements such as size and the
presence of metal-working which sets it apart. Like
Martin Down (Barrett et al 1978), Latton appears to
lie at the meeting point of different ceramic zones.

Iron Age

A small collection of material appears to be more
typical of the Iron Age in the area. Difficulty was
encountered in discriminating between certain of
the shelly based wares that could be of Bronze Age
or Iron Age date.

Description of fabrics

SHELL 4: Shelly ware. A thinner-walled ware
with a dark orange to orange-brown exterior and a
brown core and interior surface. Inclusions are
commonly leached out leaving a vesicular fabric.
The paste contains a moderate frequency of fossil
shell up to 5-6mm in size with a sparse scatter of
coarser shell, occasional discrete ooliths and other
fossiliferous matter including bryozoa. In total
153 sherds of this ware was noted, the only

124 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

featured sherd being a small rimsherd of
indeterminate overall form. Most of the sherds,
(42) came from pit 613 with further examples from
pits 609, 428, 655 and 751. The association of the
material with a carinated bowl (see SHELL 5
below) in pit 613 would suggest that this is an
early Iron Age fabric.

SHELLS: Shelly ware. An orange-brown ware
with a brown core, similar to SHELL4 but with a
sparser distribution of inclusions. The paste
contains an ill-sorted sparse to common frequency
of shell, some fragments up to 8 mm with occasional
rounded red iron. A small group of 12 sherds was
found, of which six derive from a flared wall,
carinated bowl (Fig. 17.14). All the sherds came
from pit 613. Typologically the bowl would fit into
the early Iron Age period.

SALI1: Sandy with limestone. A black sandy
ware of fine to medium texture with a sparkling
appearance. At x20 magnification the paste shows a
moderately well-sorted, common frequency of
rounded to sub-angular quartz and a_ sparse
frequency of ill-sorted limestone. The latter
comprises small fragments of oolitic conglomerate
up to 5mm in size, discrete ooliths, fine grained
limestone rock and occasional fossiliferous matter.
Represented by a single small rimsherd from pit
613 and thus associated with the carinated bowl
noted above.

SALI2: Sandy with limestone. A_ black,
moderately hard ware with a sandy texture. At x20
magnification the paste shows a sparse scatter of
rounded quartz (less than 0.5 mm) rare flint and
occasional fine limestone and shell or voids,
generally less than 2 mm in size. Represented by
just two bodysherds with an external burnish from
posthole 718.

Medieval and Later

A small collection of nine medieval and eleven
Post-medieval sherds was recovered. The medieval
sherds, all Minety ware, were unstratified or from
the plough furrows. The Post-medieval-Modern
sherds came from the ditches bounding the plough
and furrow to the west and from contexts (601) and
(315).

Catalogue of illustrated sherds

From the ditched enclosure (northern ditch)
1. Bucket-shaped, cordoned urn. The cordon has
finger-depressed decoration whilst the external rim
is marked with diagonal slashes. The vessel wall has

been perforated at least three times, with one hole.
above the cordon, one below and one uncertain.
Fabric: FLINT1. Ditch segment 383 (372/373).

2. Small vessel with plain walls and a simple
undifferentiated rim. Mid brown in colour with a
dark grey interior/core. Fabric: GROG. Ditch 383
(373).

3. Bucket-shaped urn with expanded, flat-topped
rim. Fabric: SHELL 1. Ditch segment 387 (393)

4, Small thin-walled bodysherd with faint traces of
tooled decoration. Probably from a Globular Urn.
Fabric: FLINT2. Ditch segment 387 (389).

5. Small urn or jar with an expanded rim defined
with a thumbed groove at the junction of the rim
and wall. Diameter uncertain. Black in colour with
a brown core/interior. Fabric: SHELL1. Ditch
segment 387 (393).

From the ditched enclosure (eastern ditch)

6. Thinner walled vessel with curving walls, black
in colour throughout. The exterior rim surface has
been finger smoothed and the upper wall is
decorated with spaced finger depressions. Fabric:
SHELL2. Ditch segment 366 (368).

7. Vessel with a slightly splayed wall and squared off
rim. Angle slightly uncertain. Orange-brown in
colour with a dark grey core. Fabric SHELLI.
Ditch segment 366 (367).

From Waterhole 421
8. Bodysherd from an urn decorated with
diagonally applied strips. Fabric: GROG. (481).
9. Bucket-shaped cordoned urn with finger-pressed
decoration on the cordon and external rim edge.
The rim is internally expanded. The vessel is
brownish-black to orange-brown in colour. Fabric:
GROG. (419).
10. Small jar with a simple undifferentiated rim,
slightly bevelled. Brown in colour with a dark grey
interior and core. Fabric: SHELL2. (419).
11, Thick-walled bodysherd with diagonal slashed
decoration with a possible hint of finger-tipped
decoration below. Dark brown black in colour,
fabric SHELLI. (418).
12. Vertically walled vessel with a_ simple
undifferentiated rim. Decorated with a single
horizontal line of finger depressions below the rim.
Black in colour. Fabric: SHELLI. (418).
13. Bodysherd with a slight carination decorated
with finger depressions? above the carination
(orientation uncertain). Dark grey-black in colour.
Fabric: SHELLI. (418).

PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENT AT LATTON LANDS 125

Other
14. Thick-walled urn with an internally expanded
rim decorated with slashes on the exterior face.
Black in colour throughout. Fabric: SHELLI. Pit
688 (691).
15. Everted rim jar with finger tipped decoration on
the interior of the rim. Fabric: SHELLI. (353).

Early Iron Age
16. Flared wall carinated bowl, patchy red-brown to
grey in colour with a dark grey core. Fabric
SHELLS. Pit 613 (616).

The Flint
by Hugo Lamdin-Whymark

A total of 18 flints and a single piece of burnt
unworked flint was recovered from the excavation
(Table 1). The flintwork is in reasonable condition,
but a few pieces exhibit post-depositional edge
damage. The majority of flints exhibit a heavy
white cortication and one piece is iron-stained
orange; a side scraper exhibits different levels of
white cortication on the flake surface and retouch
scars, suggesting reworking. A few flints exhibit
thick, unabraded, white cortex, indicating that the
raw material is chalk flint.

The flint flakes and cores recovered all exhibit
platform edge abrasion and appear to have been
relatively carefully removed. The lack of
diagnostic artefacts hinders dating, but the
technological traits suggest a Neolithic or early
_ Bronze Age date for the majority of pieces; one
_ fine snapped blade may date from the Mesolithic.
The majority of flints were recovered from middle

Bronze Age features, indicating that the flintwork
was probably residual.

The Stone
by Ruth Shaffrey

The worked stone is unremarkable, consisting of
only a probable weight and a polished pebble. The
weight is limestone (681) pierced by a hole
measuring 10 mm in diameter. The quartzite
pebble was found in a Bronze Age pit (1750) along
with a human cranium and femur and has been
used as a polishing stone resulting in one very
smoothed and curved surface. A large quantity of
burnt, unworked limestone rubble was also
retained (Table 2) and is fully listed by context and
weight in the archive report. This material was
friable suggesting that it had not been used for
cooking and the majority of it came from
miscellaneous undated pits lying to the north and
east of the middle Bronze age enclosure, although
some material was found in the fills of the enclosure
ditches and the waterhole.

Table 2. Burnt unworked limestone rubble from
Middle Bronze Age contexts

Context Lithology Descrip

Burnt rubble
Burnt rubble
Burnt rubble

Limestone
Limestone
Limestone

Burnt rubble
Burnt rubble
Burnt rubble
Limestone Burnt rubble

Limestone
Limestone

Limestone

Table 1. The flint assemblage by context

CATEGORY 370 395 396 397 426 448 487 503 534

2 eon
ia Oe 1 2 1 sh eee

Multiplatform 1 oases

Rp | NOIRE SG chet mtgdneteersn

Percloutar!) akc eetinrencin eel) sonst el RE ct ey ee eI ee

piceleccapecaiMial UNO dealer ML avo ao ee

Spurred piece

Grand Total

126 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

The Fired Clay
by Alistair Barclay

The excavations produced a large fragment of a
cylindrical weight (sf 121) and two small pieces of
amorphous fired clay (contexts 585 and 621). The
weight provides probable evidence of textile
manufacture on the site. Similar weights have been
found on a number of later Bronze Age sites in the
Upper Thames valley (e.g. Wallingford, Yarnton and
Eynsham: Barclay 2001, 139). A similar weight was
found at a late Bronze Age site at Shorncote some 5
km to the west (Morris 1994, 43-4 and fig 13:2).

Fig. 18 The Loomweight
Catalogue (Fig. 18)
Sf 121, context 372. Clay loomweight (453 g).

Approx. 50% complete, dia. 100 mm, ht. 67 mm.
Manufactured from unmodified silty clay.

The Wooden Bowl
by Maisie Taylor

The wooden bowl recovered from waterhole 421
was quite fragmentary but it was possible to
reconstruct virtually the complete profile (Figure
19). The bowl is carved from a single piece of fine
grained, diffuse porous wood, probably a log of
alder. The vessel appears to be round-based,
although the base is thickened for strength and
stability. The sides and rim are well carved and so
well finished that there is very little evidence for
how the vessel was worked.

No precise parallels of similar date have been
found for the bowl from Latton Lands, but then
Prehistoric wooden vessels are very rare in
England. This is possibly because the ideal

0 250 mm
———— ___—__

1:4
Fig. 19 The Middle Bronze Age Bowl

conditions for preservation are equally rare, but
may also be due to the difficulties of recognising
this kind of material in situ.

One of the Neolithic bowls from Etton, Cam-
bridgeshire is very similar in profile (Taylor 1998, fig
168), but the one from Latton Lands is much finer,
with thinner walls. When discussing the Neolithic
wooden bowls from Etton, it was apparent that there
were similarities with contemporary pottery forms.
This is not the case at Latton, however, and may
strengthen the argument that the shapes of wooden
bowls were determined by the character and grain of
the wood, rather than borrowing predetermined
shapes derived from pottery.

The Molluscs
by Elizabeth Stafford

Introduction

Six samples were submitted for analysis of molluscan
remains from the lower fills of the two middle
Bronze Age ditch termini, 366 and 383 (Figures 3
and 4).

PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENT AT LATTON LANDS 127

Methodology and results

One kilogram of sediment was floated in water on to
0.5 mm mesh and the flots dried. Residues were also
sieved to 0.5 mm and dried. Flots were scanned
under a binocular microscope at magnifications of
x10 and x20. Residues were also checked for shells,
although the flotation was generally found to have
given adequate shell recovery. The abundance of taxa
was recorded on a scale of + (present, 1-2
individuals), + + (some, 3-10 individuals) and +++
(many, 11+ individuals). An estimate was also made
of the total number of individuals in each flot
excluding Cecilioides acicula. This species was
excluded because it burrows deeply and provides no
useful information on conditions as a sediment or
soil formed. C. acicula can be extremely numerous
and its inclusion in the total tends to obscure the
results from the other species. The results are
presented in Table 3. Nomenclature follows (Kerney
and Cameron 1979). Overall the preservation and
species diversity was moderate to poor.
Identification to species level proved difficult with
Lymnaea sp and Vallonia sp. due to the fragmentary
nature of the shells (See Figure 3 for the location of
the samples).

Interpretation
Ditch terminus 366: The two lowermost samples
<17> and <18>, of the tertiary fill (397) were

dominated by freshwater species Anisus leucostoma
and to a lesser extent Lymnaea sp. The identification
of Lymnaea was difficult since the shells were fragile
with only a few examples of the tips of the apices
surviving. Terrestrial molluscs were present, albeit in
very low numbers. A.Leucostoma is considered to be a
slum species, tolerant of poor water conditions,
inhabiting ponds and ditches subject to drying or
stagnation. Of the terrestrial molluscs, Cochlicopa
sp., Cepaea sp. and Trichia hispida fall into the
intermediate group, none of which are particularly
diagnostic of either shaded or open habitats. The
presence, however, of Vallonia sp. may suggest open
ground/grassland nearby. In addition, although
Carychium tridentatum is classed as a shade-loving
species, it also commonly inhabits the base of the
leaves of grasses in ungrazed grassland.

Assemblages from the upper tertiary (397)/
<19>, and secondary fill (368)/<20>, show a
decrease in the number of freshwater molluscs
suggesting silting and drying of the ditch. The
addition of Oxychilis cellarius and Aegopinella nitidula
may suggest a slightly more shaded environment,
although this may be local to the vegetation around
the ditch.

Molluscan preservation was very low in ditch
terminus 383. The assemblage from fill (381)/<6>
contained a few freshwater molluscs; cf. Lymnaea sp.
suggesting wet conditions. There was, however, a

Table 3. Molluscs

128 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE.

marked absence of A. leucostoma. This may be related
to the shallower profile of ditch terminus 388
compared with ditch terminus 366. The terrestrial
assemblage was similar to ditch terminus 366. The
molluscs within fill (373)/<15> consisted entirely of
intermediate species.

The Animal Bone
by Fulie Hamilton

Introduction

A total of 1776 (c. 28 kg) fragments of bone was
recovered by hand from 30 middle Bronze Age
contexts. Surface condition varied from feature to
feature and was generally poorest in ditches, best in
the waterhole. The overall average score was
around 3 (extensive surface damage, 35-65% of
surface obscure). Poor preservation significantly
affected identification and other information
obtainable, and it was not possible to draw strong
conclusions on species proportions, management
regimes, or taphonomy. About 30% by number
(80% by weight) of fragments were identified.

Most of the 535 (20256g) identified fragments
were from cattle, with sheep/goat (no positive goat),
pig, dog, horse and red deer also present. Three
fragments of burnt bone were unidentifiable and
may have been human or animal. The animal bone
seems representative of a mixed farming economy
involving the common domestic animals, probably
with an emphasis on cattle. There is little evidence
for extensive use of wild resources.

The cattle were shorthorned, 110-115 cm
withers height. There was evidence for processing
of all parts of the carcase and disposal on site. This
was also probable for sheep and pig. Pig were
apparently slaughtered young to provide meat. Red
deer was represented by both antler and limb
fragments.

Methodology

All the hand-retrieved animal bone was examined,
identified as far as possible and recorded. Analysis
focuses on species present and species proportions,
with some consideration of population and
taphonomic data as available.

Bones and teeth were identified using a
comparative collection and standard references
such as Schmid (1972) and Hillson (1992). The
assemblage was recorded on an Excel spreadsheet
allowing details of context, species, element, side,
completeness (Dobney and Rielly 1988), age/sex

data, pathology, measurements, alteration and
condition to be recorded for each fragment;
numbers of unidentified fragments and weights per
context were also recorded. Total fragment
numbers and, where useful, minimum numbers of
individuals (based on the commonest element, with
side taken into account and fusion state for long
bones), were calculated from these records. Ageing
of domestic animals followed Silver (1969), Payne
(1973; 1987), Grant (1982) and Levine (1982), sheep
and goat bones were distinguished according to
Boessneck (1969) and cattle horn cores classified
following Armitage and Clutton-Brock (1976), and
Armitage (1982). Where no goat was positively
identified, sheep/goat is referred to as sheep.
Measurements followed Von Den Driesch (1976).
Withers heights were estimated according to Von
Den Driesch and Boessneck (1974). Condition was
scored using a scale of 1 (bone surface totally
removed/obscured) to 5 (bone surface in pristine
condition), as surface condition will affect
identifiability and the quality of taphonomic
information.

Condition, identifiability, and variation by context type
Altogether 1766 fragments (c.28 kg) of bone were
analysed. Of these 75% came from the waterhole
(421), with 16% from pits and 9% from ditches (783
and 784, Table 4).

The condition of bone affects its identifiability
and the amount of additional information which
can be obtained from the assemblage. Differences
in preservation between context types may also
affect comparisons between them, because smaller
fragments and hence those from smaller and/or
younger animals, will tend to be disproportionately
lost.

Various indicators of condition showed the
same general pattern. Mean fragment size was
similar for ditches and pits (11g), but larger for the
waterhole (17g). Surface condition score was
generally worst in ditches at around 2, better in pits
and best in the waterhole at around 3 (Table 5). The
overall average score was around 3 (extensive
surface damage, 35-65% of surface obscured).

The 535 fragments (c. 21 kg) identified to
species, only account for about 30% of the bone
assemblage (number of identified fragments, NIF;
Table 6), reflecting medium to poor preservation.
The percentage of fragments identified in different
context types varied in line with fragment size,
from 23% for pits to 32% for the waterhole. By

weight, nearly 80% of fragments were identified -

PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENT AT LATTON LANDS 129

(similar for all context types): thus, the
unidentified fragments were generally the smaller
ones, often the result of post-depositional breakage.

The overall condition of the collection is not
good, with low identification rates and mediocre
surface preservation. Evidence of breakage,
butchery, gnawing, and other surface alteration has
thus been lost. Most bones were fragmentary, so
very few measurements were possible. It is also
likely that more fragile elements and smaller/
younger animals are under-represented, so species
proportions, skeletal representation and age data
will be affected.

Species present and species proportions

Species present were domestic cattle, sheep (no
positive goat was found), pig, horse, dog and (wild)

Table 5. Fragment condition by context type

NIF in Condition* Average
context type condition
7

Fragment numbers

Context type Total NIF

red deer. Cattle were overwhelmingly dominant in
all context types, although the proportion was
noticeably lower in ditches (Table 7). However,
there were only 38 identified bones from ditches,
which is insufficient to make firm conclusions.
Nevertheless, poorer preservation in ditches, as
demonstrated above, would tend to reduce the ratio
of sheep to cattle, ie. operate in the opposite

Table 4. Percentage of identified fragments by context type

Fragment numbers _| Fragment weights
Total % Total %

No. of
contexts

2342
17658

Table 8. Species proportions by NIF (number of identified fragments),
WIF (weight of identified fragments) and MNI (minimum number of individuals)

130 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE’

direction, so it would be unwise to assume that the
overall proportion of sheep was really as low as it
appears - if most sheep bones were discarded in
ditches they may have mostly been lost from the
record.

Less than 10% of fragments came from pits and
species percentages were similar in ditches and the
waterhole, so it seems reasonable to combine data
from all features for further analysis (Table 5).

Other methods of quantification, weight and
minimum number of individuals (MNI) confirm
the dominance of cattle, though the MNI method
probably reduces some of the preservational bias
against smaller species and so may give more
realistic proportions of sheep and pig. There are too
few fragments, however, to take this aspect further.

The animal bone seems representative of a
mixed farming economy involving the common
domestic animals, probably with an emphasis on
cattle. There is little evidence for extensive use of
wild resources. The red deer bone included five
antler fragments which could have come from shed
antler, but also four metatarsal fragments,
suggesting that red deer were present in the area.

Species descriptions

Cattle

Horncores were of the short-horned type. There
were few measurable elements, but withers heights
were estimated from a radius (114 cm) and a
metacarpal (110 cm) (Table 9).

Nine mandibles with teeth could be used to
estimate an age-at-death profile: these indicated
that no more than a third of the cattle had died by
stage 35 (about 3. years, Table 10). According to
epiphysial fusion data (combined for all elements,
Table 11), about 15% of cattle had died by the age of
3-4 years. Both of these methods are likely to
underestimate mortality of younger animals
because poorer preservation of juvenile elements is
likely to be significant at this site. There were in
fact several unerupted teeth among the loose teeth
and one neonatal metacarpal. Among the
measurable horncores one was classified as male,
one male/castrate and one unknown (all age class 3,

young adult), while six of eight classifiable
innominates were classed as female (these could not
be aged). This would make sense if surplus males
were killed young for meat but females killed older,
after breeding: the ‘female’ characteristics of
innominates become more marked with age and are
thus more likely to be recognised. In all likelihood
the cattle remains represent a breeding herd, but
data are too few to draw conclusions about cattle
management.

Table 10. Cattle age data (mandibles, method after

definite attributed
n n

Grant 1982)

One innominate fragment (of 13) showed exostosis
of the ischium near the acetabulum. One metatarsal
fragment (of 31) showed exostosis and remodelling
of the proximal joint surface. Such pathology may
be linked to the use of cattle as draught animals.
One lower third molar (of 13) lacked the 3rd cusp.
Table 12 shows the numbers of fragments of
different elements (skeletal representation) and the
distribution of butchery marks over the skeleton.
The MNIas calculated for each element is included
to allow for the effects of fragmentation - for
instance, 21 fragments of scapula can be accounted
for by 4 animals, but 21 fragments of metacarpal
must represent at least 9 - scapula is thus more
fragmented. Clearly, all parts of the skeleton are
represented, with the more robust and earlier
fusing parts surviving best. There may also be an
effect of recognisability - many longbone fragments

Table 9. Measurements of cattle bones

Metacarpal

GL (cm)
367

17.5

Radius GL(cm) | Bp BFp | SD Bd
26.6 7 66 35 65 51

BFd

PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENT AT LATTON LANDS 131

Table 11. Cattle age data (epiphysial fusion)

lack definitive features and were classified as ‘large
longbone’ (included with unidentified). Butchery
marks are common on horncores, due to removal of
the horn sheath and sometimes chopping of the
core from the skull, and on mandibles where cheek
meat and/or tongue have been removed. They also
occur on axial elements (scapula and inominate)
and are commoner towards the limb extremities
(radius, tibia and metapodials). Both chops and
cuts were noted, generally around joints where
meat had been stripped off: one scapula had been
chopped through the spine. Overall butchery marks
were seen on 5% of cattle fragments (excluding
teeth), and this is certainly an underestimate
because of the poor surface condition of many
fragments. Less easy to quantify are bones fractured
for marrow, which relies on analysis of breakage
patterns and is particularly difficult where there is
considerable post-depositional breakage, as here.
Fracture patterns and bone splinters were noted
that could have resulted from such deliberate
breakage, but these were not rigorously quantified.
The cattle bones can be interpreted as food remains,
with killing, butchery and other processing, and
waste discard taking place on site.

Table 12,MNI, NIF and butchery marks on different
cattle elements

Element n %
NIF MNI NIF | +butchery | +butchery
3 14 3 :

horncore 21.4

skull fragment

mandible

Cattle probably accounted for a major proportion of
meat eaten, though it is not possible to estimate the
overall proportion of meat in the diet. Evidence for
other uses of cattle - manuring, traction, milk,
carcase products other than horn such as fat and
hides - and their place in the agricultural and social
system is more elusive, though the occurrence of
hip/hindlimb pathologies may indicate their use for
traction.

Sheep
Only 27 fragments (200 g) are identified as sheep/
goat (no positive goat), so conclusions are limited.
There were no measurable bones or recordable
mandibles - of the 2 lower 3rd molars, one was
unworn and one was in wear stage g (Grant 1982).
The commonest element was tibia, which is both
robust and recognisable, followed by loose teeth
(Table 13). Butchery was noted on one femur, as a
series of short cuts where meat had been stripped.
We can only assume that sheep played their
usual role in the economy, providing manure, meat
and other carcase products, wool and possibly milk.
Ina mixed farming economy sheep would thrive on

132 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

different pastures from cattle, enabling wider
resource use.

Table 13.MNI and NIF per element for sheep
and pig
Sheep/ goat

ea
3 5

metatarsal

metapodial

loose teeth

Pigs

Only 16 fragments (202 g) are identified as pig with
no evidence for wild boar. There were no
measurable bones or recordable mandibles, but
from the limited evidence available there was a high
proportion of young animals, evidenced by three
unfused distal epiphyses (two metapodials and a
tibia) out of only seven limb bone fragments and
one unerupted lower third molar (of one). One
canine was from a male. The commonest element
was the robust mandible. No butchery or pathology
was seen.

This conforms with the usual pattern where
pigs are managed primarily for meat and carcass
products and are generally slaughtered young.
They were probably ‘extensively’ managed,
exploiting woodland environments for example,
where they could be fattened on mast in the
autumn, so broadening the resource base.

Other domestic animals
One tibia fragment and one first phalanx of horse
were found, demonstrating the presence of this
species at the site.

Dog was represented by one mandible fragment
with heavily worn teeth from context 368 (an upper
fill of middle Bronze Age ditch terminal 366),

another mandible fragment from context 417 and a
scapula fragment from context 481, both fills of
middle Bronze Age waterhole 421. Again, this does
little more than demonstrate the presence of dog
during the middle Bronze Age, suggesting a canine
origin for most or all gnawing noted on bones (see
Taphonomy below).

Red deer

Red deer was represented by five antler fragments,
three of which had been sawn and four metatarsal
fragments (one complete). The antler fragments,
mainly tine tips, were probably waste from antler
working. One also had traces of chewing, possibly
by deer, suggesting that it was collected as shed
antler. The presence of limb bone (metatarsal)
suggests that deer were present locally. It is possible
that some of the unidentified long bone is also from
red deer, since it can be difficult to distinguish
fragmentary red deer from cattle bone (Bourdillon
and Coy 1980).

Red deer prefer woodland environments. While
they probably contributed little to the overall meat
diet, antler was an important raw material and
hunting may have been a prestige activity (possibly
also involving dogs and horses).

Taphonomy

Poor surface preservation (Table 5) has already been
discussed. Other traces of alteration (butchery,
burning, gnawing) will be obscured as a result. For
instance, 90% of fragments with butchery marks
(26/29) and 82% (14/17) of gnawed fragments were
from the waterhole, though only 75% of fragments
overall were from this feature. This is as likely to
reflect better surface preservation as differential
distribution of gnawed or butchered bone.

There was a variable amount of dark staining
on the bone fragments and the more of this there
was, the better the surface condition per context
(correlation coefficient r=0.711, n=25). Staining
could reflect preservation of bone in waterlogged
conditions, such as in the waterhole (421). Indeed,
most fragments recorded as stained ‘dark brown’
were from the waterhole and both surface condition
score and proportion of ‘dark brown’ fragments
were higher in lower contexts (r=0.894, n=6).

Burning was seen on one cattle fragment and
four unidentified fragments. Surface discoloration
might well have obscured traces of burning on bone
from the waterhole.

Gnawing (by dogs) was seen on 16/478 cattle
fragments and 1/1043 unidentified fragments. The

PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENT AT LATTON LANDS 133

amount of gnawing recorded varied from feature to
feature, but this could just as well be accounted for
by variation in surface preservation.

Comparative material

There is a paucity of published bone material from
sites of this period. What there is suggests that a
relatively high proportion of cattle is usual (Tinsley
and Grigson 1981, 210-49), though Jones notes a
high proportion of sheep at Roughground Farm,
Lechlade (Jones 1993, 34).

Conclusions

Post-depositional damage and destruction of the
bone assemblage has affected interpretation in
terms of both animal numbers/proportions and
taphonomy. The general picture is one of mixed
animal husbandry able to exploit a range of
environments from wet to dry grassland, scrub to
woodland. There is little evidence for exploitation
of wild resources, so it is likely that food supply was
based on the established farming system. Cattle
appear to have been the major source of meat, but it
is not possible to establish details of their
exploitation, or the proportions of the other major
domestic species. The site could have been self-
sufficient in animal resources, with breeding,
management, slaughter, processing and disposal all
based there, though this would not rule out
exchanges and connections with other sites.

The Human Skeletal Remains

by Annsofie Witkin
Introduction
The human skeletal remains consist of an

articulated skeleton (651) and two disarticulated
fragments of femur shaft and cranial vault. The
articulated skeleton lay in an oval pit (640, Figure
11) in a crouched position orientated west-east. The
disarticulated bones were located in the secondary
fill (1752) of pit 1750 (Figure 10) containing
waterlogged material. The human remains are of
uncertain date, but may belong to the middle or late
Bronze Age.

Quantification

Pit (1750) was 0.68 m deep and 0.68 m wide, and the
layer in which the disarticulated bones lay was
waterlogged and contained animal bones and a
polishing stone. Another organically rich layer
(1753) overlay that containing the human remains.

The pit was sealed with redeposited clean natural
gravel, making the pit invisible in plan view.
Skeleton (651) was buried in a pit 640, resting upon
three fills (653, 652 and 654) and overlain by a
fourth (641). Three fragments of unidentifiable
burnt bone from the western terminal of a middle
Bronze Age curvilinear enclosure ditch (783,
Figure 3) were also examined.

Methodology

Completeness of skeletal remains was scored using
four categories: poor (0 - 25%), fair (26-50%), good
(51-75%), excellent (76-100%). The inventory of each
skeleton was recorded by shading in the present
skeletal elements on a pictorial representation. In
addition, the skeletal components of each individual
were recorded in tabular form as present or absent.
Dental inventory was recorded following the
Zsigmondy system (Buikstra and Ubelaker 1994).
Dental notation was recorded using universally
accepted recording standards and terminology (after
Brothwell 1981). Eight cranial features were used for
sexing, chosen from Standards (Buikstra and
Ubelaker 1994) and Workshop (1980). Each
observable feature on the cranium was scored on a
five point scale (probable female, female, probable
male, male and unknown). The overall score from
the observed features provided the basis for the
assigned sex. Due to the fragmentary nature of the
remains, the only methods which could be applied
for the assessment of age were the pattern of suture
closure (Meindl and Lovejoy 1985) and dental
attrition (Miles 1962). The remains were examined
for abnormalities of shape and surface texture. When
observed, pathological conditions were fully
described and_ recorded following accepted
standards.

Articulated Skeleton 651

Preservation and completeness: the bones present
were well preserved with no degradation of outer
cortical surfaces of the bones. Multiple post-
mortem breaks on the long bones and cranium
were, however, present. The lower arms, left tibia
and parts of the other surviving long bones were
also badly fragmented. The cranium had ancient
post-mortem breaks caused by soil pressure.

The completeness of the skeleton was poor. All
smaller bones apart from six metacarpals and five
phalanges were completely degraded and only
fragments from the pelves and scapulae were
present. Of the long bones, only the shafts were
present. None of the joint surfaces or spinal

134 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE '

Table 14. Dental inventory

Key: The numbers represent the teeth present

elements had survived. Most teeth were present but
all were loose. It was not possible to ascertain if
missing teeth had been lost ante or post mortem.

Age and Sex

This individual was possibly female aged between
25 and 35 years. Five sites on the cranium assessed
for the determination of sex provided an even mix
of male and female scores and one indeterminate.
Morphology of the long bones, however, suggested
a female, since they are quite small and slender,
with weak muscle attachment sites.

Pathology
No skeletal or dental pathological lesions were
observed.

The disarticulated human remains

Preservation of these bones was very good, due to
the waterlogged nature of the fill in which they lay.
Neither bone was complete and the breaks had
occurred before deposition. After processing the
femur shaft developed longitudinal fractures likely
to have been caused by shrinkage as the bone dried
out. Analysis of the bones is summarised in Table 15.

The burnt bones

Three small fragments of unidentifiable burnt
bone, between 8 and 2 mm with a combined weight
of 1 g, came from two fills (373 and 381) of the
western terminal of ditch 783.

Discussion

Between the middle and late Bronze Age, a shift in
funerary practices took place. Cremation burials
became less common and from the late Bronze Age

into the Iron Age, the dead are, to a large extent,
archeologically invisible. Within specific contexts
associated with settlements, however, human
remains are frequently uncovered, commonly
disarticulated cranial fragments and long bones.
Articulated limbs and complete skeletons have also
been found though these are not as common (Briick
1995). The majority of sites yielding such bones are
concentrated in central southern Britain. Sites in
the Middle and Upper Thames Valley with similar
features and deposits include Green Park (Brossler
et al. 2003), Watkins Farm (Allen 1990) and
Shorncote Quarry (Brossler et al. 2002).

The deposition of disarticulated bones in pits is
likely to be associated with exposure of the dead
and secondary manipulation, which is thought to
be the main burial ritual in southern Britain
during the early and middle Iron Age (Carr and
Knitsel 1997) and possibly the middle and later
Bronze Age. This practice involved excarnation
through exposure away from the settlement, with
the subsequent retrieval of selected bones
(commonly long bones and crania) or articulating
limbs after an intermediate period of time when
the body decayed. Bones would then have been
ritually incorporated into deposits such as pits.
This process accounts for the absence of small
bones and flesh-bearing bones lost during exposure
and animal scavenging during the excarnation
process.

The deposition of human bones, articulated
skeletons or isolated bones during the late Bronze
Age seems to have occurred when waterholes or pits
no longer served their original function and may
have been used as rubbish pits. The majority of
waterholes and pits are situated at the edge of

Table 15. The disarticulated remains

Context
number

1752 Cranial vault - 25-35

ft eo

Female

No pathology present. Size and shape of the bone
suggests a female individual.

Multiple lambdoid ossicles. No pathology
present.

PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENT AT LATTON LANDS 135

settlements (Brossler and Boyle 2001). These
deposits may be seen as purely functional but are
likely to have had a symbolic and/or a ritual
meaning. Wet places may have been seen as liminal
zones in a ritual, religious or political sense:
possibly even as a meeting point between this world
and the other. On the other hand, ancestral bones
may have been used to legitimise a claim or mark
out a settlement or region as belonging to a specific
group of people (Briick 1995, 260).

The Pollen
by Elizabeth Huckerby

Introduction

Pollen analysis of fill (481) of the Bronze Age
waterhole 421 provided an insight into the
environment of the settlement when the fills of the
waterhole were accumulating.

Methods
A monolith (0.50 m) was taken through part of fill
419 and the entire depths of fills (480) and (481)
from waterhole 421. The top of the monolith was
0.66 m below the present surface (see Figure 5).
Sediments were recorded in the laboratory and
are described below. Initially six individual
subsamples were taken for the assessment from the
following depths, 0.66-0.665 m, 0.855-0.86m, 0.955-
0.96 m and 1.055-1.06 m below the present surface.
An additional seven subsamples were taken from
between 0.96 and 1.16 m. Subsamples were
prepared chemically for pollen analysis using
standard techniques of hydrochloric acid, sodium
hydroxide or potassium hydroxide, followed by
sieving, hydrofluoric acid and acetolysis (Faegri et
al. 1989). Samples were then mounted in silicone oil
and examined with an Olympus BH-2 microscope
using x400 magnification routinely and x1000 for
critical grains. Counting continued until a sum of at
least 300-500 grains of land pollen had been reached
on two or more slides. This was done to reduce the
possible effects of differential dispersal under the
coverslips (Brooks and Thomas 1967). Pollen
identification was carried out using the standard
keys of Faegri et al. (1989) and Moore et al. (1991)
and a limited reference collection. Cereal-type

grains were defined using the criteria of Andersen

(1979); indeterminate grains were recorded using

| groups based on those of Birks (1973). Charcoal

particles greater than 5 wm were also recorded

following the procedures of Peglar (1993). Plant
nomenclature follows Stace (1991).

Analysis and storage of the data were
accomplished using the tillia/tilliagraph software
(Grimm 1991) to categorise data and aid its
interpretation. The results are presented as a
percentage pollen diagram of selected taxa. The
pollen sum, on which the percentages are
calculated, includes all land pollen and bracken
spores. There are no obvious differences in the
pollen assemblages and therefore the diagram has
not been divided into local pollen assemblage
zones.

Results
All depths quoted are given from below the present
ground surface.

Stratigraphy

The sediment was predominately a silty clay with
bone fragments above 0.96 m, pebbles between
0.82-1.02 m, and wood fragments below 1.13 m.
Sediments below 1.135 m were very crumbly and as
a consequence lost when the monolith was
unwrapped. All samples were calcareous and
needed initial treatment of heating with 10%
hydrochloric acid. Charcoal fragments, plant
remains including wood fragments, bryophytes,
sedge nutlets (Carex) and undifferentiated plant
material, and insect remains increased in fill (481).

Pollen (Figure 20)

The pollen assemblages show little variation at the
different depths except at 1.0575 m when grass
(Poaceae) pollen falls sharply and dandelion-type
(Liguliflorae), and Chenopodiaceae pollen, and
bracken spores increase. However, at this depth the
value of indeterminate grains rises and the
concentration of identifiable pollen declines,
resulting in a smaller pollen sum. Bracken spores
and dandelion-type grains are more resistant to
deterioration than other taxa, and may therefore
indicate a skewed data set at this depth rather than
a change in the local environment. The earlier
assessment (LUAU 2001) highlighted that there
was a high percentage of corroded or crumpled
grains at 0.66 m to 0.65 m.

Pollen from herbaceous taxa dominated the
pollen assemblage throughout the profile, with a
maximum of 90% of total land pollen. Tree and
shrub pollen was less than 25% of total land pollen
and bracken spores. The major components of the
tree and shrub pollen are alder (Alnus glutinosa) and

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THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

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PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENT AT LATTON LANDS 137

hazel-type (Corylus avellana-type) with some oak
(Quercus), and ash (Fraxinus), and_ sporadic
occurrences of other taxa including birch (Betula),
pine (Pinus), and lime (Tilia).

The assemblage of herbaceous pollen suggests
that several plant communities are represented.
Cereal-type pollen was recorded at low levels
through most of the pollen profile with arable
weeds including corn spurrey-type, (Spergula-type),
Chenopodiaceae, knotgrass (Polygonum aviculare)
and redshank (Persicaria maculosa) recorded (Behre
1981). The majority of the herbaceous taxa, for
example grasses, ribwort plantain (Plantago
lanceolata), buttercup-type and Ranunculus-type,
suggest that the settlement and immediate environs
supported a grassland or ruderal-type community.

Occasional grains of hemp/hop-type (Cannabis/
Humulus-type) pollen were recorded at 0.995 m,
1.0725 m and 1.1325 m. Hemp and hop pollen are
extremely difficult to distinguish from one another
and no firm identification was made. Hops,
although now cultivated, are a native plant growing
in hedgerows, scrub and fen-carr, whereas hemp is
thought to have been introduced and cultivated for
fibres.

The frequency of aquatic taxa, in particular
common reed (Phragmites australis), increases above
0.98 m at the transition between contexts 481 and
480 and suggest that the waterhole was starting to
silt up and possibly fall into disuse.

Discussion

The origin of the pollen is of direct relevance in the
interpretation of pollen diagrams and in general the
smaller the size of the basin the more local the
pollen recorded in the sediments (Jacobson and
Bradshaw 1981). Conversely, the larger the
catchment basin the more regional the picture of
vegetational change it gives. The diameter of the
waterhole at Latton Lands is relatively small and

_ therefore likely to provide a more local record of the

vegetation than a larger natural waterbody or mire.

_ The pollen data at any site are composed of two

_ components,

one originating from _ regional
vegetation, the other more locally; the proportions
of these components vary with the size of the basin.

_ It is usually assumed that tree and shrub pollen is
_ derived from more regional vegetation, whilst
| herbaceous

plants represent local plant
communities, although there are exceptions to
both. The direction of prevailing winds would
influence the source of the regional component of
the pollen rain. In addition to problems associated

with the interpretation of the pollen source of a
natural catchment basin there are additional ones
that relate to an archaeological feature such as the
waterhole at Latton Lands. Pollen identified from
such deposits can include material that has been
thrown into the feature and also pollen from
imported plants or parts of plants that are therefore
not representative of the local vegetation (Faegri et
al. 1989).

The results of palynological analysis of the fills
of the waterhole (421) confirm that the landscape
had been cleared of trees (LUAU 2001). Before the
palynological assessment it was thought that the
settlement enclosure was possibly delimited by
trees on the two sides, where no ditches were
identified, but the analysis suggests that this is
unlikely. The low values of tree pollen indicate that
few if any trees were growing close to the site. The
only significant values of tree pollen are of alder
and hazel-type pollen with low values of oak and
sporadic occurrences of other taxa, for example
lime and elm. Hazel-type, alder, oak and birch are
all prolific pollen producers (Andersen 1970).

By contrast, at the nearby site of Latton
‘Roman Pond’ pollen analysis of organic sediments
suggested that woodland was still relatively
important in the late Bronze Age (Scaife 1999, 510-
12). Pollen analysis by Scaife (ibid.) of an organic
deposit in a shallow depression in the basal
Devensian gravels demonstrated the presence of
oak, lime and hazel woodland on the drier soils
with some evidence of carr-woodland on the wetter
areas some way from the site. The short pollen
profile (0.20m) from Latton ‘Roman Pond’
demonstrated evidence of the Tila decline in the
late Bronze Age, a date of 1258-1020 cal BC
(2943+63BR NZA-8579, R24151/9) from
waterlogged seeds at the base of these deposits
dating it to the Late Bronze Age (Robinson 1999,
499 and Scaife 1999, 512). Further woodland
clearance is noted towards the top of the Latton
‘Roman Pond’ sequence. Analysis of the silty clay
fills of the Latton Lands waterhole (421), however,
suggests that woodland had already been cleared
from the environs of the settlement in the Bronze
Age. Robinson (1999, 499) considers that fen peat
began to develop at Latton ‘Roman Pond’ in tree
throw holes after clearance as the water table rose.
Pollen analysis from the lower fills of waterhole
(421) suggests that the landscape was probably
being used for both pastoral and arable farming.
Low but consistent values of cereal pollen suggest
cereal crops close to the waterhole. Cereal-type

138 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

ATM20.14c OxCal v2.18 cub r:4 sd:12 prob[chron)

waterhole

WK-12942 3076+50BP

WK-12941 3085+42BP

1800cal BC 1600cal BC 1400cal BC 1200cal BC 1000cal BC
Calibrated date

Fig. 21 Radiocarbon Determinations

pollen, however, is known to be under-represented
in palynological records and investigations in north
Germany have suggested that cereal pollen may not
be recorded in deposits at distances greater than
one kilometre from a site and even by 500 m little is
recorded (Behre and Kucan 1986).

Aquatic plants

The absence of substantial evidence for aquatic
plants or organisms in the pollen profile suggests
that when the sediments were forming the
waterhole was kept clean of vegetation, or utilised
in such away as to prevent the water becoming
stagnant and plants such as_ waterlilies or
pondweeds colonising.

The later use of the waterhole

A high percentage of pollen grains in the sample
from 0.66-0.665 m are crumpled or badly corroded
precluding identification. A high percentage of
dandelion-type pollen, which is resistant to
corrosion and easily identified, however poor the
pollen preservation, indicates that some of the
pollen may be derived from secondary deposition.
The likelihood of material either washed or thrown
into the waterhole, supports the possibility that the
fill 419 results from the disposal of rubbish.

Conclusions

In conclusion, this analysis has indicated that the
settlement at Latton Lands was not delimited on
two of its four sides by trees, and that woodland was
less important to the local environment in
comparison with Latton ‘Roman Pond’.

RADIOCARBON DATING

Two samples, both of waterlogged wood, were
submitted to the Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory
at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. The
results are summarised in Table 16 below. Sample
no.8 was recovered from layer 481 (an organic rich
deposit associated with further waterlogged wood
including part of a wooden bowl) within waterhole
42] (Figure. 5) and was also associated with Deverel-
Rimbury style pottery .

The aim of the dating programme was to
establish the date of the waterhole in relation to the
middle Bronze Age (1500-1150 cal BC) sequence,
and to provide an associated date for the wooden
bowl (SF109) and for the lower part of the pollen
sequence (Sample 9). Figure 21 and Table 16
demonstrate that the two radiocarbon results
obtained are virtually indistinguishable at the two
sigma range and confirm the date of the waterhole

Table 16: Radiocarbon results

Laboratory | Sample Material Radiocarbon °13C
number reference age (BP) (%o)

WK-12941 Wood
(maloideae)

WK-12942 Wood (silicaceae)

3085 +42 1410-1260 BC

One sigma Two sigma

1440-1210 BC

1410-1260 BC 1440-1130 BC

PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENT AT LATTON LANDS 139

as falling between 1440-1130 cal BC, approximating
to the middle Bronze Age period (Needham 1996,
133-4 and fig. 1).

DISCUSSION

The Middle Bronze Age

Settlement Structure

The archaeology suggests a domestic settlement
situated on the river valley floor and probably
overlooking a fertile agricultural landscape. The
most prominent features would have been the two
substantial linear ditches, 53 m and 69.2 m in
length respectively that defined a settlement space
open to the south-west with a north-east facing
entrance. The area has clearly been subject to
ploughing both in the medieval and Post-medieval
period and the archaeology was somewhat
truncated. It is therefore likely that the ditches were
originally flanked by substantial internal banks and
that they were deeper than the 0.5 m that survived
at the time of excavation. Situated at a mid-way
point between the north-eastern ditch terminals
was a large waterhole, indicating that stock was
kept either within the enclosure or nearby. Storage
pits clustered to the south-west of the waterhole in
and around the north-east facing entrance. Groups
of postholes, both within the enclosure and
immediately to the north of the northern ditch, may
be the remains of internal fences, or an external
palisade predating the ditches. None of these
postholes formed coherent patterns and it must be
assumed that some have been lost to ploughing.
Only one of the two roundhouses found lay within
the enclosure area; the other lay to the south-east.
This rather low density of buildings may be a
function of truncation.

British middle Bronze Age settlements with
discontinuous ditches are fairly common and some
adopt an L-shaped pattern similar to the Latton
example. At Thorny Down in south Wiltshire an L-
shaped bank defined a settlement to the south and
west, while a ditch delimited the north-western
extent of activity (Stone 1941, 115). At Down Farm
in Dorset a middle Bronze Age settlement was
flanked to the south-east by a bank and ditch that
curved round to the north-west at both ends, but
did not encircle the settlement (Barrett et al. 1991,
183-214). Similarly at Shearplace Hill, Dorset
(Rahtz 1962) and Cock Hill in Sussex (Barrett et al.

1991, 209), middle Bronze Age settlhements were
partially enclosed by banks and ditches. The Angle
Ditch in Dorset was an L-shaped ditch defining a
settlement to its south-east (Barrett et al. 1991, 206;
Rahtz 1962, 190). Many of these sites also contained
roundhouses, ponds and waterholes similar to the
ones uncovered at Latton. It is also notable that
many of these sites lay close to early Bronze Age
round barrows, which subsequently became the
focus for middle Bronze Age cemeteries. The ring
ditch at Down Farm was the focus for eight
cremations and five inhumations of middle Bronze
Age date (Barrett et al. 1991, 183 - 214). The ring
ditch and series of pits uncovered to the south-west
of the Latton enclosure may have seen similar
activity in the middle Bronze Age, although this
remains no more than an intriguing possibility. All
of these sites were upland settlements, which
accounts for the frequent preservation of their
banks. The Latton Settlement remains unusual in
the context of the Churn valley and the upper
Thames region.

Settlement Character and Chronology
Environmental, artefactual and structural evidence
points to a farmstead possibly practising a mixed
farming regime and dating to the middle Bronze
Age, as confirmed by the two radiocarbon
determinations. The animal bone assemblage from
the ditches and the waterhole is dominated by
cattle, probably the main source of meat, with little
evidence for consumption of wild animals. Small
amounts of horse and dog bone demonstrate their
presence, but with no indication of how they were
exploited. Molluscan evidence from the terminal of
ditch 784 points to open grassland nearby
indicating that animals were grazed in the area.
Environmental samples from the lower fills of the
waterhole contained cereal pollen which, along
with the presence of storage pits, indicates that
arable crops were being produced and consumed. A
loomweight from one of the ditch fills may be taken
to suggest that the site was engaged in textile
production. The possible presence of hemp pollen
from the waterhole may be seen to back up this
contention.

Concentrations of burnt limestone from the fills
of the pits, ditches and the waterhole present
interpretative difficulties, as their function is not
immediately obvious, either from their form, or
their context. Such concentrations are relatively
common on late Bronze Age sites in the Upper
Thames valley, such as Shorncote (Brossler et al.

140 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE ©

2002; Hearne and Heaton 1994; Hearne and Adam
1999) and Eight Acre Field (Mudd 1995) where
they are interpreted variously as pot boilers
(Brossler et al. 2002) and as debris from
metalworking (Hearne and Heaton 1994; Hearne
and Adam 1999). At Eight Acre Field the burnt
stone formed a metalled surface and was
interpreted as a cooking area (Mudd 1995, 57).
Whilst the assemblage of burnt stone from Latton
is smaller than the assemblages from these sites, it
does exhibit similarities, especially in distribution.
The pottery assemblage from the _ ditches,
particularly the north-eastern ditch terminals, and
from the waterhole, includes imported material and
has few components from a source in the immediate
vicinity of the site. This may suggest that the site
was of high status although a lack of metalwork and
metalworking debris does not support this view.
Similar sites, such as Thorny Down (Stone 1941),
often produce fine metalwork. Concentrations of
pottery sherds, wooden artefacts, burnt stone and
animal bone in the fills of the ditch terminals and
the waterhole, including at least two Deverel-
Rimbury bucket-shaped urns, a wooden bowl, a dog
mandible and three fragments of worked antler is
suggestive of structured deposition. There may
have been some textile production and the
inhabitants may have engaged in feasting activity
that involved deposition of pottery, burnt stone and
animal bone in the ditch fills.

Environmental and artefactual evidence from
Latton tallies with evidence from many of the sites
discussed above, where similar assemblages of
pottery were found, although several of these sites
revealed metalwork including a double looped
spearhead from Thorny Down (Hawkes 1941),
while others had better evidence of textile
production. The overall impression is that the
settlement at Latton was broadly equivalent to sites
such as Down Farm, Thorny Down and South
Lodge.

Settlement Context

Given the evidence, it is difficult to say whether
the enclosure existed in a densely settled
landscape or was relatively isolated. The nearest
known Bronze Age activity is at Cotswold
Community to the west (Granville Laws pers.
comm.). A ring ditch to the south-west of the
enclosure suggests early Bronze Age settlement in
the area, while the gravel terraces and flood plain of
the Churn valley would have made _ prime
agricultural land. It would not be surprising

therefore if future excavation revealed further
evidence of middle Bronze Age settlement.

The position of this distinctive kind of middle
Bronze Age enclosure on the gravel terrace of a
tributary of the Thames may be seen as unusual,
given that the distribution of such sites is generally
restricted to the uplands of Wessex, although this
pattern may be due to differential preservation. Its
situation may also be seen as interesting, since
Bradley has argued for distinctive differences
between the settlement patterns of the river gravels
and those of the uplands (Bradley 1984). Ultimately,
the middle Bronze Age was a time of agricultural
and settlement intensification and in this sense the
Latton Lands enclosure is not out of place.

The Later Prehistoric Activity

An unaccompanied crouched inhumation and two
pits one of which contained human remains were
tentatively assigned to this phase. The pits could
belong to the middle or late Bronze Age, although
neither contained datable artefacts. One of the pits
contained a femur shaft and a cranial vault, both
from an adult female. In the absence of clear dating
evidence the inhumation can be seen as later
prehistoric, but is not more closely dated.

The Iron Age

Scatters of pits and ditches lying predominantly to
the north and north-west of the middle Bronze Age
enclosure may have been of Iron Age date, which
indicates the continuation of settlement and/or
agricultural activity on the gravel terrace.

The Medieval Period

Field boundaries, possibly representing a series of
paddocks, lay to the south of the middle Bronze
Age enclosure, while ridge and furrow was present
over the whole of the excavated area. Clearly the
area was subject to intensive agricultural use during
the medieval period. It seems likely that this
activity is related to the medieval settlement of
Latton.

The Post-Medieval Period

A rectangular ditched enclosure overlay the
medieval field system and to the west of this a

PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENT AT LATTON LANDS

ditched trackway seemed to define the edge of the
medieval ridge and furrow. To the west of the
trackway was a stone lined culvert. These features
seem to represent continuation of agricultural
activity in the area related to the settlement at
Latton. The fact that the trackway seemed to define
the limit of the ridge and furrow may indicate that
it followed the line of an earlier route present
during medieval times.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Oxford Archaeology is grateful to Cotswold
Aggregates, who funded the archaeological
investigations, analysis and publication and
facilitated access, and to John Wheeler and Andrew
Liddle for their co-operation and help on site.
Elizabeth Huckerby would like to thank the
Department of Biology, University of Lancaster for
the use of laboratory facilities. Thanks are also due
to the OA staff for their hard work during the
excavations including Jim Mumford who
supervised the watching brief phase of the work.
The authors are grateful to all their colleagues at
OA, particularly Gill Hey who managed the
excavations and Jane Timby who oversaw the post-
excavation phase of the work. Alistair Barclay read
and commented on the final draft of the text, Matt
Bradley helped out with the digital plans, Dana
Challinor oversaw the environmental processing
and Claire Sampson processed the environmental
samples. The authors would particularly like to
thank Amy Tucker and Lucy Martin for preparing
the illustrations and Sarah Lucas for drawing the
wooden bowl.

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Age’ in I.G. Simmons and M_]J. Tooley, 210-49

VON DEN DRIESCH, A. and BOESSNECK, J.A. 1974.
Kritische Anmerkungen zur Widoeristheberechnung
aus Laengemessungen vor- und fruehgeschichtlicher
Tierknochen. Saegetierkundliche Mitteilungen 22, 325-48

VON DEN DRIESCH, A., 1976, A Guide to the
Measurement of Animal Bones from Archaeological Sites.
Harvard University: Peabody Museum Bulletin 1

WORKSHOP OF EUROPEAN ANTHROPOLOGISTS.
1980. Recommendations for age and sex diagnoses of
skeletons. Journal of Human Evolution 9, 517-49

144 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE:

Swindon @

WILTS

Rodmead :
4 Farm | -

®@ Trowbridge

Whitesheet Hill
@

Salisbury ®

Enclosure

E aD \v 4 se iS ¢
oy i = AS Whitesheet Hill |. e
ae wi P< cross-ridge earthworks i

Whitesheet
Quarry

® Barrow

500m

Al coatours im metres OD

Fig. 1 Whitesheet Hill: Location of the sites excavated

Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History Magazine, vol. 97 (2004), pp. 144-196

Investigation of the Whitesheet Down Environs
1989-90: Neolithic Causewayed Enclosure and

Iron Age Settlement

by Mick Rawlings,' Michael 7. Allen' and Frances Healy’

with contributions by Rosamund M.f. Cleal, M. Corney, Rowena Gale, Pat
Hinton, D. McOmish, 7.M. Maitby, Elaine L. Morris and Robert G. Scaife

The construction of a water pipeline across part of Wiltshire and Somerset enabled the investigation of a transect
through the causewayed enclosure at Whitesheet Hill, sectioning the enclosure ditch and revealing several internal
features. Other sites on and around Whitesheet Hill were also investigated including a Beaker period pit, two cross-
ridge earthworks and an enclosed settlement of the Middle Iron Age.

The earlier Neolithic date of the enclosure ditch was confirmed and a number of internal features were recorded.
These included solution and tree hollows but also probable contemporary archaeological features. The ceramic
assemblage indicated that the causewayed enclosure at Whitesheet Hill had a greater affinity with areas to the south
and west (Hembury) than to the north and east (Windmill Hill) and an important molluscan sequence was recovered
from the ditch which provides some comparisons with similar sites on Hambledon Hill and Maiden Castle.

In the winter of 1989-90 Wessex Water plc
constructed a 700mm underground pipeline from
Codford, Wiltshire (ST 954400) to Ilchester,
Somerset (ST 523223), a total distance of 61.5km. A
continuous archaeological watching brief was
maintained during construction and several sites
were identified and recorded (Rawlings 1992;
1995).

Whitesheet Down is a small Middle Chalk
downland block lying on the western scarp of
Salisbury Plain (Figure 1). The Down is sited
immediately north of the Vale of Wardour and the
scarp slope overlooks the lower land of the Lias and
Purbeck Beds/Oxford Clays to the west. At the local
scale it is separated from the Salisbury Plain to the
east by a deep, bifurcated dry valley. The Iron Age
hillfort below the summit of Whitesheet Hill has
views to the west over the clay vale. In contrast the
Neolithic causewayed enclosure on the edge of the

escarpment has views over the clay vale but it is
sited at the head of a dry valley with views to the
east down its axis. Colt Hoare noted that the
causewayed enclosure, unlike the hillfort, is
conspicuous from either west or east (Colt Hoare
1812, 41).

The hillfort on Whitesheet Hill forms part of a
largely uninvestigated complex of monuments
situated on a plateau of Middle Chalk (Figures 1
and 2; see Corney and McOmish below). In
crossing Whitesheet Hill the pipeline cut through
three Scheduled Monuments: the earlier Neolithic
causewayed enclosure on the western spur of
Whitesheet Hill, and two linear cross-ridge
earthworks, the Whitesheet Hill Linear and the
Mere Down Linear (Figure 2). A Beaker pit was
discovered to the east of the Mere Down Linear
during this work, and an Iron Age site in
Whitesheet Quarry (Figure 1).

' Wessex Archaeology, Portway House, Old Sarum Park, Salisbury SP46EB * 20 The Green, Charlbury OX7 3QA

146 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE |

PART 1: THE
ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE
WHITESHEET DOWN
HILLTOP

SURVEY
by M. Corney and D. McOmish

The earthworks on Whitesheet Hill occupy the
extreme south-west tip of the chalk massif which
covers much of southern Wiltshire. Extensive views
of the Blackmoor Vale are afforded to the south,
whilst to the north and north-east much of the high
chalk downland of west Wiltshire is visible,
including the concentration of Neolithic, Bronze
Age and later monuments on Cold Kitchen Hill.
Much of the study area is now downland pasture,
although there are clear traces of prehistoric and
later cultivation.

The Whitesheet Hill complex (Figure 2)
comprises three large enclosures, two univallate
and one multivallate. Divisions of the landscape are
represented by three substantial cross-ridge
earthworks and funereal activity marked by at least
eleven round barrows. This note is confined to the
description of the two univallate enclosures
(Figures 3 and 4) and related features. Both sites
were surveyed at a scale of 1:1000 using a Wild
TC2000 ‘Total Station survey package with
additional measurements made by taped offsets.

Enclosure 1 (Neolithic causewayed
enclosure) _

Enclosure 1 (Figure 3) is an ovoid medium-sized
circuit (Oswald et al. 2001, 75), defined by at least
23 ditch segments, with an internal bank enclosing
an area of 2.3ha (5.7 acres). First noted by Colt
Hoare (1812, 42), the true nature of the site was only
recognised in 1950 by Grinsell, with confirmation
of the date provided by Piggott and Stone in 1951
(Piggott 1952; VCH 1957). The enclosure is best
defined to the north-east of the modern track which
cuts across the site. Here the ditch is visible as a
series of elongated hollows up to 0.5m deep. The
bank is correspondingly well-preserved and
survives to a height of 0.7m above present ground
level. It is generally continuous although there are
also locally raised sections which, in part, relate to

the deeper portions of the ditch. Some offsetting of
the alignments between ditch and bank causeways
is evident. Later mutilation has occurred on the
north-eastern arc where hollow-ways associated
with the former Stourhead to Salisbury coach road
cross the line of the enclosure.

To the south-west of the modern track the
enclosure is less substantial with the bank formed
by a series of dumps, 10—-15m in length and up to
0.4m high. These dumps tend to occur opposite
ditch segments which, in this area, are more
irregular and slighter than on the north-east.
Recent chalk quarrying has destroyed 60m of the
ditch on the north-western arc.

One potential entrance was noted 35m west of
the large bowl barrow (Wilts SMR ST83NW 649)
which impinges upon the ditch circuit. The
putative entrance consists of a slightly offset 10m
wide gap in the circuit approached by a double
lynchet terrace. A noticeable misalignment of
approximately one-third of the circuit of the
enclosure occurs 70m north of barrow 648 with a
further offset some 170m to the north-east (Figure
3). This may indicate a longer period of
development of the site than previously assumed. It
is possible that, initially, the north-west side, on the
edge of the steep escarpment, was not defined by a
bank and ditch but only further excavation could
resolve the matter.

Three bowl barrows were recorded beyond the
south-western arc of the enclosure (Wilts SMR
ST83NW 646, 647, and 648). No. 646 is now
eroding into an abandoned quarry. A slight
rectangular, embanked feature was recorded between
barrows 646 and 647; it is of unknown date or
function. The narrow chalk plateau is cut 130m
south-east of the causewayed enclosure, by a cross-
ridge earthwork formed by a single ditch up to 1.0m
deep with a bank on each side. Severe mutilation and
damage has occurred where hollow-ways associated
with the former coach road cross the earthwork.

Enclosure 2 (undated univallate
enclosure)

An oval enclosure (Figure 4) of c. 3ha (7.4 acres),
300m north-east of the causewayed enclosure, was

first noted by the Ordnance Survey in 1953. Defined.

by ascarp up to 0.4m high with an external ditch, the
circuit has been much reduced by ploughing. There
are traces of possible ditch interruptions on the
south-eastern arc and a probable entrance, 14m

INVESTIGATION OF THE WHITESHEET DOWN ENVIRONS 1989-90 147

— BANK
-——a, DITCH
® BARROW

0 500 metres
a ee]

Fig. 2. Whitesheet Hill: Location of major monuments

| wide, on the east. Within the enclosure are very
_ slight circular depressions which may indicate the

positions of former structures. To the north and
west of the enclosure are the mutilated remains of a
field system of probable prehistoric or Romano-
British date. At 140m north of the enclosure is a

| damaged, partly bivallate, cross-ridge earthwork.

Traces of ridge and furrow cultivation were noted
between enclosures | and 2.

The Whitesheet Hill complex is a remarkable
prehistoric landscape survival. Although undated,
enclosure 2 has certain traits (notably the traces of
ditch causeways on the south-eastern arc) which
may indicate a Neolithic origin and the detailed

148 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

S .

: NS
Koo" WI
<a)

Quarry

ae FF von
ico COMMISSION
von, Piggott |
i

Ny,
TR
ae

i HISTORICAL
MONUMENTS
“ENGLAND

1299/1326

100
j METRES

Fig. 3 The Causewayed Enclosure: Hachured plan of monument and location of excavated features

survey of the hillfort (not shown here) identified
traces of a possible underlying ditch circuit. If this
should prove to be of Neolithic date, then
Whitesheet Hill could be seen as another
Hambledon Hill type complex (Mercer 1980). The
field survey evidence is promising, but only an
extensive excavation programme could provide
confirmation.

THE CAUSEWAYED
ENCLOSURE

Previous Excavation

Earlier excavation through the enclosure ditch
(Figure 3) showed that it was of irregular depth and

profile (Piggott 1952). In one of the sections the
ditch was 1.35m deep while, in a second, it was only
0.65m deep. Small sherds of Windmill Hill style
earlier Neolithic pottery were found in the primary
silts of the deeper ditch section along with flint
flakes and a scraper.

Excavations in 1990

The pipeline was routed along the centre of the
existing, relatively deeply incised, access track as it
was thought that all archaeology would have been
removed from this strip both by wear and during
laying of the track surface. Nevertheless, this
enabled examination of the enclosure ditch in the
south-east, and of some internal features. The track
is the former coach road from Stourhead to
Salisbury and has deeply cut into the enclosure

INVESTIGATION OF THE WHITESHEET DOWN ENVIRONS 1989-90

VA ee
ie & wee

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4 d
ny,
Say, ny

1) yang
rill TV

“ALANS

Milli,

willl

lll M//
ii Miu,

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as Mf,

4 STULL
ETN SS TAMIA Sse

SOPEAA TELE AEG Deere”

149

Ss ROYAL

\. COMMISSION

\ HISTORICAL

MONUMENTS
“ENGLAND

SM. gn,

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SONU LOOEOL TLLE
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MEW),

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50
J METRES

_ earthworks in the north-western arc (Figure 3). A
- previous, limited, evaluation (Wessex Archaeology
1986) had indicated extensive disturbance.
_ Geophysical survey of the interior of the enclosure
adjacent to the track suggested the presence of a few
_ small features, possibly pits.
The track make-up lay directly on top of the
| eroded/truncated chalk bedrock and a 2m wide

ML i,

sey ye

uty}
MMT Pee

Fig. 4 Enclosure 2

strip was removed by machine. Within the interior
of the enclosure this strip was 120m _ long
comprising 1% of the total enclosed area. It revealed
nine discrete features or feature groups within the
enclosure and sectioned the circumferential ditch
on the south-eastern arc.

The ditch was not present within the stripped
area on the north-western arc of the enclosure. It

150 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

Ditch 1288

15.00
+ 10.00

\
\

S 2 1289

poe
EM

Recut OL 132006

4256-3350 cal BC
(5020+ 150 BP)

et
it Silt

| Silty loam

Gy Silty clay loam

sQevy Chalk

3710-3370 cal BC
(4800+70 BP)

eq| Flint 3710-3380 cal BC

(4820+50 BP)

233.55m0.D.
TA

SECONDARY

PRIMARY

1288

Fig. 5 The causewayed enclosure: ditch section and plan

had either been completely removed by the very
pronounced hollow-way, or the 2m wide stripped
area coincided with a wide causeway.

The causewayed ditch

The excavated ditch section was 4m wide at the
surface and 2.8m deep with a flat base (Figure 5).
The sides were steep until a point c. 0.9m above the
base at which they became almost vertical. The
chalk through which the ditch was excavated was
poorly structured and no tool-marks were observed

on the sides or the base. Narrow and intermittent
seams of tabular flint were recorded at irregular
intervals through the chalk. Artefacts were
retrieved by hand and the ditch fills were sampled
for molluscs. A recut was also sampled for pollen.
The primary fills of the ditch comprised loose
chalk rubble nearly 1.75m deep with occasional
nodules of flint (1354) and a series of layers of
vacuous chalk rubble (1336, 1332) and loose chalky
soil (1335). Two radiocarbon dates (Table 1) from
bones in the lower fill, one from pig bone and the

INVESTIGATION OF THE WHITESHEET DOWN ENVIRONS 1989-90 151

Table 1. Whitesheet Hill: Radiocarbon results

Location Material Lab No Result BP ci3 %o calibrated range 95%
enclosure ditch

base of ditch recut (1328) pig scapula BM-2783 5020+150 -19.5 4250-3350

primary fill (1354) pig radius + femur BM-2784 4800+70 -19.3 3710-3370

primary fill (1354) cow lower limb BM-2785 4820+50 -21.3 3710-3380

interior pits

Pit 1295, basal fill (1322) pig long bones BM-2821 4750+90 -20.6 3720-3330

Pit 1295, basal fill (1322) hazelnuts BM-2823 4740+35 est -25 3640-3370

Pit 1303, fill 1346 hazelnuts BM-2822 4790+50 -23.9 3690-2270

Calibrated using OxCal ver 2.15

other from cattle, provided determinations of
4800+70 BP (BM-2784) and 4820+50 BP (BM-
2785) respectively. Two large pieces of gabbroic
pottery were recovered from the basal fill (1354)
along with other sherds of earlier Neolithic date.

The secondary fill was a much more compact
layer (1334). A considerable amount of worked flint
was recovered and a small deposit of burnt material
(1351) was contained within it. This material
comprised burnt chalk along with some ash, burnt
flint and burnt bone and represents a dump of
material into the partially filled ditch rather than
an episode of im situ burning. A thin greyish layer
(1333) served to indicate a gradual change from the
compact secondary fill (1334) below to a darker
brown soil above (1327).

The ditch fill sequence was truncated by a recut
at least 0.75m deep and c. 3.1m wide at the surface.
This recut had a broad V-shaped profile although
the sides were quite irregular and _ varied
considerably within the excavated section. An
homogeneous lower fill of stony dark silty loam
(1328) contained a single sherd of Mortlake-style
Peterborough ware and a pig bone provided a
radiocarbon determination of 5020+150 BP (BM-
2783). This fill was sealed by a thin, slightly lighter-
coloured deposit (1320) containing a substantial
quantity of large flint nodules, which formed the
lower horizon of a stabilisation or soil. The upper
part of the this soil was a very distinct layer of
compact dark silty loam with well-developed small
blocky structure (1319).

The bank
This is still visible on the interior side of the ditch
around much of the enclosure circuit but it is no

| longer extant adjacent to the excavated ditch

section, presumably as a result of the long use of the
coach road. No ancient land surface was present,
although a distinct linear band of unweathered

chalk 3m wide adjacent to and parallel with the
inner edge of the ditch (Figure 3) provided
evidence for the position of the bank.

The interior

The strip across the interior of the enclosure was
120m long but the nine features or groups of
features were within the central 60m (Figure 3). All
of these were totally excavated and in each case the
whole fill sequence was retained and subsequently
sieved in order to maximise artefact recovery. It was
a surprise that features existed along the heavily
eroded route of the trackway, and those that survive
must originally have been considerably deeper. The
track had removed at least the upper 0.5m of some
features (see Figure 8, section of pit 1291).

A number of solution pipes and features were
recognised, some with cylindrical smooth-sided
shafts penetrating the chalk below features. All
contained a clean dark reddish-brown clay with
occasional manganese nodules. On excavation these
appeared to be postholes within the pit, though
they could not be clearly defined within the general
feature fills, and at least one feature also contained
several large stones, interpreted at the time as
packing stones. A number of pits revealed
complicated indurated bases where they had cut
into solution features.

Pit 1303 (Figure 6) was a sub-rectangular pit
1.1m long, 0.8m wide and 0.5m deep, with irregular,
slightly undercut sides and a flat base. The basal fill
(1346) contained a considerable quantity of
charcoal and burnt flint along with more than a
hundred sherds of pottery of earlier Neolithic date.
Carbonised hazelnuts from this deposit provided a
radiocarbon determination of 4790+50 BP (BM-
2822). There was no indication on the sides or base
of the pit of in situ burning and it is assumed that
the deposit represents a dump of burnt material
that originated elsewhere.

152 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

ey | Solution feature
3690-2270 cal BC
(4790+50 BP)

Sofution
feature

KEY
lll | Silty loam
Gy Silty clay loam
Clay loam a", “as
Sm Ce Pottery % \\ J
in| Clay SN
A Bone Ss
''\| Chalk silt j tal |
114! Charcoal me
}9:| Flint “ac, | Ash Fy K
© |Worked flint Y
0 = A
4 9 Burnt flint A—B Line of section
£295) Chalk rn
(@) Sarsen
WA

S 233.533m0.D \
a “B

7
pales
ee
se
/s
S

= 4
aie aes =
pe (s
a
a ae
re We ~ = 1352
aS =~
EES
SS
SS
0 1

Fig. 6 Feature groups 1303/1368, 1326/1299, 1352/1330/1297

In the base of the pit were three or four sub-
circular, steep, straight-sided solution hollows up to
0.9m deep. They were filled with typical dark
reddish-brown clays with occasional flint
fragments. The pit was recut (1368), the base of
which cut through the pit fill and into the solution
hollows (Figure 6). A single fragment of sarsen

quernstone was recovered from the lower fill of the
recut (1338) and two other pieces were found in the
upper fill (1302).

Pit 1295 (Figure 7), was 1.0m in diameter with
steep sides and a flat base. The basal fill contained
pieces of chalk and ashy material, and a couple of
small sarsen blocks. A series of solution hollows

INVESTIGATION OF THE WHITESHEET DOWN ENVIRONS 1989-90 153

233.41m0.D
x NW SE %*

SS OTE IO E FS
SUI LILO

CCAM elo lips GYD bet
ie Ware Md etre
Se) nA ie Si i321 Hr
Sills COS a |
SPO 4 |] 7
3720-3300 cal 8C___~S7=*srone! | egg? | 1295
(4750+90 BP) » packing lps Fa 71)
ees Unex

a
i

cavated la
3640-3370 cal BC S
(4740+35 BP)

t— Solution feature

231.64m0.D
nw

1291
| Fig. 7 Features 1295, 1293, 1291
and pipes was present in its base, four of which in the fills of this pit whilst the upper part of the fill
_ ended on a piece of level tabular flint. A pig bone sequence of the feature group contained several
_ from the basal fill of pit 1295 yielded a radiocarbon fragments of sarsen.
determination of 4750+90 BP (BM-2821) and a A shallow sub-circular, saucer-shaped pit
determination of 4740+35 BP (BM-2823) was (1293; Figure 7), 1.2m in diameter and c. 0.2m deep
obtained from charred hazelnuts found in the same with a flat base, contained two small sub-circular

layer. Sherds of earlier Neolithic pottery were found possible cuts in the central part that may represent

154 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

Present
ground
surface
outside
the track

232.05m0.D
ray

Fig. 8 Profiles of features 1303, 1330, 1295, 1291

the bases of postholes destroyed by pit 1293. This
was the shallowest feature recorded within the
enclosure, possibly because of its location
downslope on the north-east side of the enclosure.
The fill sequence contained a considerable amount
of burnt material, almost certainly dumped from
elsewhere. Artefacts included sherds of earlier
Neolithic date.

Feature 1352 (Figure 6) was an irregular
elongated feature, probably a tree hollow or
possibly a solution feature. It contained a number
(between 9 and 13) of clay-filled, steep-sided,
intercutting solution hollows and possible root
holes in its eastern end (1297), the deepest of which
was 0.75m. Occasional large pieces of flint and
chalk were present in the dark fills along with a
small quantity of earlier Neolithic pottery. Various
parts of the feature were labelled as definite features
(e.g. 1330), but during post-excavation it became
clear that they were natural solution and root hole
features.

A sub-circular feature (1291; Figures 7 and 8)
with a wider upper part and a central steep-sided
cut, produced a quantity of very small sherds of
probable later prehistoric/Romano-British pottery
which may have been intrusive within the upper
fills. The remaining features comprised similarly
disturbed, shallow features and possible postholes.

Demonstrably Neolithic postholes are rare in
enclosures, and none have been recorded, for
example, in the interior at Hambledon Hill (Mercer
and Healy in prep.).

Radiocarbon dates (Table 1)

Six radiocarbon dates were supplied by Janet
Ambers of the British Museum and the results form
a coherent group. Three were from the enclosure
ditch; two from the primary fill (1354) and one
from the basal fill (1328) of the ditch recut. The two
determinations from the primary fill, although
vertically more than 0.3m apart, were statistically
indistinguishable at the 95% confidence level
(Ward and Wilson 1978). They give a date for
construction and the start of infilling of 3710-3380
cal BC, that is, typical of construction dates for
other causewayed enclosures in Wessex.

The results from a slightly gnawed pig scapula
in the base of the recut gave a result that was older
than both the result from the fills beneath it, and all
of the interior pits. The result (BM-2783; 5020+150
BP) was associated with Peterborough Ware but
gave a calibrated date of 4150-3350 cal BC which is
far too early for such an association. The bone
sample was very small, heavily weathered and
probably residual.

INVESTIGATION OF THE WHITESHEET DOWN ENVIRONS 1989-90 155

Table 2. Whitesheet Hill: Pottery totals by fabric group and feature (weight in grammes)

V1 Xl

no/wt

S99

S1-2

Q100-2
no/wt

C99 DI1-5 D99 El F1-2 F99 O1-3 099
no/wt

C1-3

no/wt

no/wt no/wt

7/64

no/wt
1/2

no/wt

no/wt no/wt

no/wt

7/55

4/11

Recut

7/3

1305
1303
1368
1301
1326
1299
1330
1297
1295
1293
1291

344/93
58/10

1/5

66/299

4/4
3/8

35/63

6/4

2/2

13/15

1/1

3/6

137/25
60/10
63/13
16/3

1/1

1/1
3/2

10/19

1063/194
171/62

1/1
3/8

1/2

22/35

19/80
26/28

3/2

4/1

9/1]

94/88

1/1

5/3

The second series of three results was from the
fills of pits within the interior of the enclosure. Two
were from different material (animal bone and
hazelnuts) from the basal fill (context 1322) of pit
1295. These results (3720-3330 cal BC and 3640-
3370 cal BC) are statistically indistinguishable, and
form a coherent group with that obtained on
charred hazel nut from pit 1303. This series of dates
indicates that activity within the enclosure was
contemporary with, rather than earlier than, the
construction of the bank and ditch enclosure
circuit.

POTTERY
by Rosamund M. 7. Cleal

In total, 625 sherds (1540g) of Neolithic pottery and
102 sherds (102g) of Late Iron Age or Romano-
British pottery were recovered manually from the
ditch and from internal features. A further 1917
fragments (1540g) were recovered from sieved
samples; where these could not be assigned to fabric
they are recorded as fabric X1 (Table 2). Fragments
assignable to fabric are included with the manually
recovered material. The Neolithic pottery includes
a small amount of Peterborough Ware from the
ditch recut, but is mainly earlier Neolithic in date.

Earlier Neolithic

On the basis of rim sherds, decorated sherds and
fabrics, it is estimated that at least 16 vessels are
represented, all of which are illustrated (Figure 9).
A further three may be represented by fabrics in
which only body sherds occur but which are likely
to be of Neolithic date (fabrics C2, Q] and S82).

Sherds were assigned to fabrics on the basis of
type, frequency and size of inclusions, using the
standard Wessex Archaeology recording system
(Morris 1992). A series of type sherds was
established and the remainder assigned to these
fabrics. Abbreviated descriptions of the fabrics are
given below, full descriptions are in the archive.
Petrological analysis was carried out on samples of
most fabrics by David Williams (archive) and the
results of that analysis are incorporated within the
fabric descriptions.

The calcareous fabrics (C, D and S) form an
heterogeneous group which may represent vessels
from several different sources. The subdivisions
include fabrics with ‘beef’ calcite, non-beef calcite,
and shell. In addition, all but one (V1) of the fabrics

156 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

VOY, s See \

Fig. 9 Pottery from the causewayed enclosure

!
|

INVESTIGATION OF THE WHITESHEET DOWN ENVIRONS 1989-90 157

with voids are likely to also belong to this group,
the voids apparently representing shell, calcite,
ooliths, and possibly chalk or limestone, which
have been leached out. The local soil conditions are
not naturally acidic, thus the survival of calcareous
inclusions in some sherds and not in others, even
from within the same features (Table 2), indicates
that this leaching occurred before the pottery
entered the features rather than after deposition in
the excavated contexts.

Most of the inclusions, including the ooliths
and the beef calcite, can be found within 20km of
the site, and may occur naturally in clay deposits.
Beef calcite occurs in the Purbeck Beds, in
particular in the Middle and Upper Beds which are
exposed c. 15~20km east of the site. Limestones of
the Great and Inferior Oolite Series outcrop c. 7km
to the west. It is possible that some of the voids in
the fabrics represent chalk and such fabrics could
therefore be very local to the site, but none were
noted in situ.

The shell inclusions in the shelly fabrics S1 and
S2 is fossiliferous (archive) and a local source is
likely, probably one of the Jurassic formations in
the area. The black grains noted macroscopically in
S2 were identified as glauconite and a derivation
from the Greensand is suggested. Only two fabrics
(Fl, F2) contained flint, in both of these it is likely
to be an added rather than a natural inclusion. F2
shows slightly greater attention to temper
preparation than F1, as the size of the inclusions is
more closely controlled, and it also contains a
greater proportion of sand than F1. Of the three
fabrics (Q1, Q2, Q3) which contained only quartz
sand, Q] appears to contain such infrequent and
fine grains that they seem likely to be natural
inclusions in the clay whilst the other two may
contain added sand. No dark grains likely to be
glauconite were noted macroscopically or at x20
magnification.

Only one vessel was recovered in a gabbroic
fabric (El). The identification has not been
confirmed by petrological analysis due to the
certainty of the macroscopic identification. In
addition to the characteristic appearance of the
fabric along the break, the surfaces show the black,
burnished finish also characteristic of much
gabbroic ware. This has been interpreted as paint
(Smith 1981, 170), but may be the result of
‘smudging’, in which the atmosphere of firing is
made carbon-rich, generally towards the end of the
process, resulting in very dark grey to black
surfaces (Rice 1987, 158). The source of this fabric

is thought to be the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall,
250km south-west of the site (Peacock 1969).

A single sherd (fabric V1) certainly contained
organic inclusions represented by linear and
irregular voids. This fabric also included voids
which likely to represent leached out calcareous
material, and a single seed impression of Triticum
dicoccum (emmer wheat).

Abbreviated fabric descriptions (all Neolithic
unless otherwise stated; p = petrological ana-
lysis):

Cl. Soft fabric with beef calcite, quartz sand and iron
oxides (p).

C2. Hard fabric with beef and non-beef calcite, quartz
sand and flint (p).

C3. Hard fabric with beef and non-beef calcite, shell and
quartz sand (p).

C99. Calcareous inclusions, fabric unidentifiable.

D1. Soft fabric with voids (probably ooliths) and quartz
sand (p).

D2. Soft fabric with voids (possibly calcite) and mica (p).

D3. Soft fabric with voids (probably shell) and quartz
sand (p).
D4. Soft fabric with voids (possibly mixed: shell, calcite,
ooliths?) and glauconite (p). Peterborough Ware.
DS. Soft fabric with voids (sub-angular) and quartz sand.
Indeterminate prehistoric.

D99. Voided, fabric unidentifiable.

El. Gabbroic ware.

F1. Soft fabric with flint, quartz sand, iron oxides and
mica (p).

F2. Soft fabric with flint, quartz sand and mica.

F99. Flint-tempered, fabric unidentifiable.

Q1. Soft fabric with some quartz sand.

Q2. Hard fabric with quartz sand.

Q3. Hard fabric with quartz sand (intermediate in sandi-
ness between Q1 and Q2).

Q99. Sand-tempered, fabric unidentifiable.

S1. Soft fabric with shell and calcite (p).

$2. Hard fabric with shell, quartz sand, glauconite and
iron oxides (p).

S99. Shell-tempered, fabric unidentifiable.

V1. Soft fabric with voids (probably organic material).

Fabrics Q100, Q101 and Q102 are considered to be Late
Iron Age/ Romano-British in date.

Using a division based on that of Whittle
(1977), and the presence or absence of carination,
the following types have been identified: carinated
closed bowls (Figure 9, P16, P18), uncarinated
closed bowls (P13, P9, P10, P14), and a neutral

158

uncarinated bowl (P17). To take the analysis of
shape further, the closed vessels could be sub-
divided into Composite Dependent Restricted
(P18) and Composite Independent Restricted
(probably P16), based on the relationship between
the carination and the equator of the vessel. In the
former the carination is at the maximum diameter
point (i.e. ‘dependent’ on the equator), and in the
latter the carination is above the point of maximum
diameter (i.e. ‘independent’ of it; the terms are
more fully described in Shepard 1954; Rice 1987,
217-19; Cleal 1992).

The fragmentary nature of the material means
that it is not possible to be certain that other forms
are not present, and the occurrence of a burnished
finish and decoration on the internal surface of the
sherds of P11 strongly suggests that it was an open,
probably shallow, form. Two vessels, one in
gabbroic ware (P17), and one in which the voids
present probably represent calcite (P16), also
possess trumpet lugs which in both cases are
pierced horizontally.

The absence of any certainly open forms and
the apparent preference for closed forms is unusual,
although the small size of the assemblage may be in
part responsible for this. On the basis of published
vessels only it is possible to suggest that closed
vessels with carinations do vary in popularity
within the earlier Neolithic ceramic traditions of
southern and eastern England. The Windmill Hill
assemblage included several examples of small
Dependent Restricted vessels (Cleal 1992, table
21.4; Smith 1965), but they appeared to be mainly
decorated, in contrast to the plain example from
Whitesheet (P18). The application of trumpet lugs
to a closed vessel is also unusual, as it is not
certainly attested at Windmill Hill, or Carn Brea
(Smith 1965; 1981).

Although the trumpet lugs on vessels P17 and
P16 are presumably in part functional features,
intended to facilitate suspension, the trumpet form
is an elaboration which is __ particularly
characteristic of the south-west, and is a diagnostic
feature for the South-Western (or Hembury) Style
(Whittle 1977; Smith 1974). The lug on the
gabbroic ware vessel P17 is entirely typical, and
there is little doubt that this vessel was made in
Cornwall, but the fabric of vessel P6 indicates that
it must be a local copy of the type. That on vessel
P16 is well made, and again typical of the form.
Vessel P7 appears to have a simple lug, dished on
the upper surface, which may have been pulled up
from the surface of the vessel rather than applied.

THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

Similar lugs occur at Maiden Castle (Cleal 1991, fig.
145: 14).

The only purely decorative feature on any of the
vessels is the fingernail-impressed motif on vessel
P11, from the enclosure ditch. This motif is rare
and the columns appear to be formed of opposed
fingernail impressions which are not pinched
(archive). No published occurrences of this type of
decoration on the interior of a vessel are known to
the writer, but a sherd from Hambledon Hill
appears to have very similar decoration on the
exterior (I.E Smith pers. comm.). Similarly, there is
a published example of exterior decoration of this
type on a small carinated closed bowl from
Remenham, Wokingham (Holgate and Start 1985,
fig. 4, 1-4). This vessel shows sinuous columns of
impression which run down the neck and onto the
body, crossing the carinated shoulder. Not all of the
impressions are fingernail and the authors suggest
that the others were created with a thorn or similar
object.

Four sherds have carbonised residues on their
interior surfaces, and sixteen have exterior sooting;
these totals include one of the decorated sherds of
P11 which has both. The gabbroic ware bowl P17
and the shelly bowl P18 have extensive sooting on
the exterior. On P17 the soot is concentrated
around the lug, although there are also traces lower
down the body, while on P18 it occurs both above
and below the shoulder carination. The presence of
soot on the gabbroic ware is interesting as it
indicates that such vessels were used as cooking
pots, either on or suspended above a fire. The latter
is more likely, as placing the vessel directly in the
embers would cause the loss of the black finish
(because of the oxidising effect of the fire and
atmosphere). All but one of the plain body sherds
possessing sooting or carbonised residues could
belong to P11 or P18; the exception is a single sherd
in fabric D3.

Volume was calculated for three vessels: P17

(gabbroic ware: c. 9300 cc on surviving part of pot |

only: 6200 cc), P18 (shelly: c. 2400 cc), and P15
(flint-tempered: c. 1200 cc). The lower part of P17
has been extrapolated from the upper and the
calculation must be regarded as less certain than for

the other two. However, even on the part of the |

profile that survives the estimated volume is more
than twice that of the next largest vessel.

Illustrated sherds (Figure 9)
Each illustrated sherd or group of sherds was
counted as a separate vessel for the estimate of

INVESTIGATION OF THE WHITESHEET DOWN ENVIRONS 1989-90 159

vessel numbers. For the manually recovered
material each sherd was assigned a Pottery Record
Number (PRN).

Pl: Fabric Q3, context 1309, cleaning of pit 1293, PRN
70260.

P2: Fabric Q2, context 1321, feature 1295, PRN 70262.

P3: Fabric D2, context 1338, feature 1368, PRN 70018,
19.

P4: Fabric D3, context 1294, feature 1295, PRN 70049.

P5: Fabric QI101, context 1317, feature 1291, PRN
70177 (Iron Age/Romano-British).

P6: Fabric D1, context 1302, feature 1368, PRN 70041.

P7: Fabric Cl, context 1333, feature 1288, PRN 70284,
85.

P8: Fabric C3, context 1342, feature 1303, PRN 70251,
SW,

P9: Fabric D2, context 1342, feature 1303, PRN 70250.

P10: Fabric D2, context 1322, feature 1295, PRN 70040.

Pll: Fabric F2, context 1354, feature 1288, PRN 70029,
30; context 1328, feature 1331, PRN 70162.

P12: Fabric D4, context 1328, feature 1331, PRN 70038.

P13: Fabric Fl, context 1333, feature 1288, PRN 70179-
217.

P14: Fabric $1, context 1360, feature 1293, PRN 70108.

P15: Fabric Fl, contexts 1323 and 1350, feature 1293,
PRN 70062, 80, 81, 92, 123.

P16: Fabric D3, context 1346, feature 1368, PRN 70163-
65, 173.

P17: Fabric El, context 1354, feature 1288, PRN 70032,
33.

P18: Fabric S1, context 1342, feature 1303, PRN 70026,
75-79, 127-140.

Peterborough Ware

A single rim sherd of the Mortlake sub-style and
three plain body sherds possibly belonging to the
same vessel were recovered from the recut of the
enclosure ditch. Peterborough Ware is known from
similar contexts elsewhere (e.g. Maiden Castle;
Cleal 1991, 181).

Late Iron Age — Romano-British

A small amount of later pottery was recovered
(fabrics Q100-Q102). Small fragments recovered
from sieving occurred in considerable numbers in
feature 1291 (Table 2). Clearly some small-scale
activity is represented by this material, but feature
1291 is not considered to be of Late Iron Age or
Romano-British date and all this later material
could be intrusive.

Discussion

Although small, this assemblage is distinctive
enough to merit comment. The ceramics can give
us some insight into two main areas of inquiry: the
external relations of the users of the causewayed
enclosure, and the internal organisation and use of
the enclosure. As a result of the extremely restricted
nature of the excavations, more can be gained from
the former than the latter.

In both fabrics and style there appear to be more
links with the south and west than with the north
and east. Apart from two sherds with heavy rims
found earlier (Piggott 1952, fig. 3), there are no rim
types typical of the Windmill Hill or Decorated
Style (Whittle 1977). The only decorated sherds are
from the bowl with interior fingernail impressions
(Figure 9, P11) and even in this case, the fact that
the impressions are on the interior, and that this is
also burnished, suggests that the vessel is likely to
have been an open (and possibly shallow) form, one
atypical of the Decorated or Windmill Hill style.

In comparison with the lack of heavy rim forms
and paucity of decoration there are more features
directly comparable with the South-Western or
Hembury style (Whittle 1977). The gabbroic ware
vessel P17 is made of clay from the Lizard Peninsula,
and is comparable to vessels from Cornwall. Similar
vessels occur at Maiden Castle and Hambledon Hill
(Dorset), Hembury (Devon) and elsewhere in the
south-west (Peacock 1969; 1988).

Trumpet lugs are typical of this pottery, but at
Whitesheet Hill only P17 is in a Cornish fabric, P16
almost certainly having been produced within a few
kilometres of the site. This copying of South-
Western style features occurs elsewhere: at Maiden
Castle only two out of nine trumpet lugs were in
gabbroic ware (Cleal 1991, table 61). However, it is
usual for the form of the vessels with this
characteristic to also reflect the forms of South-
Western style vessels, and this is certainly not the
case with P16. In the classification recently
proposed by the writer this vessel can be termed a
Closed Composite Independent Restricted vessel
(Cleal 1992, fig. 21.2), and is a rare form which
occurs in widely spaced assemblages, including
Broome Heath, Norfolk (Wainwright 1972, fig. 21,
P166), and at Staines, Middlesex (Healey and
Robertson-Mackay 1987, P79?). No examples of
lugs attached to this form have been noted by the
writer (Cleal 1992, fig. 21.5).

All vessels except P17 may have been produced
within 15-20km of the site and therefore may be

160

termed locally-produced. The presence of P11,
however, with its unusual decoration paralleled at
Hambledon Hill, and of P16, with its unusual form
paralleled much further afield, all point to the
possibility of contacts over a wider area.

As so little of the interior of the causewayed
enclosure was excavated there is little opportunity
to comment on patterns of ceramic deposition. It is
perhaps worth noting, however, that the deposition
of large pieces of gabbroic ware pottery deep in
causewayed enclosure ditches may be a recurrent
feature, as large sherds were found at Maiden Castle
in a similar deposit to that in which P17 occurred.
The question of whether the pottery was, like much
of the lithics and other material, burnt before
deposition must remain unresolved. Due to the fact
that colour does seem to leach out of buried sherds
(Rice 1987, 345), the observation that the colour of
broken edges is sometimes the same as the surfaces
cannot be taken as an indication of refiring.

FLINT
by Frances Healy

The entire fills of all possible features in the
interior of the causewayed enclosure were bagged
and subsequently wet-sieved, the residues being
washed through a nest of sieves (9.5mm, 5.6mm,
2.0mm and 1.0mm) and sorted. Artefacts were
sorted only from the 9.5mm and 5.6mm residues,
the 2.0mm and Imm residues being retained
unsorted, except in the case of a few residues of low
bulk which were washed directly through a 2mm
sieve. The 5.6mm residues contributed almost all of
the chips (pieces with an area of less than 100 sq
mm). Artefacts were recovered manually from the
causewayed enclosure ditch.

The difference between the two modes of
recovery is reflected in a low frequency of chips
(Table 3) and a generally larger flake size among
material from the ditch. Material from the features
in the interior is thus not directly comparable with
most published industries since the latter were
recovered manually.

Distribution and condition

Struck flint was overwhelmingly concentrated in
the internal features (Table 3), where a high
proportion of it was burnt, reaching a maximum of
82% in feature 1293. This also contained the largest
quantity of unworked burnt flint which was
concentrated in features towards the north-west
side of the enclosure (Figure 12).

THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

Burnt flint, worked and unworked, is fire-
cracked with frequent small pot-lid fractures, the
spalls from which are present in large numbers.
There is some brown to red discolouration, it has
the appearance of having been exposed to intense
dry heat and differs markedly in appearance from
crazed, bluish-white ‘pot-boilers’ which were not
recovered from the site. Unburnt flint from the
same features is in sharp, fresh condition and only
lightly corticated. Almost 90% of the chips from
these features were burnt or fragmentary, or both.
The remainder were complete small flakes.

The relatively small quantity of struck flint
thinly scattered through the primary fills of the
causewayed enclosure ditch is sharp and fresh and
is heavily corticated. Its condition contrasts with
that of the equally corticated material from the
ditch recut, which is dulled and abraded, often
with discoloured cortex. There was very little
burnt flint in the ditch, the only concentration
lying in layer 1351 towards the top of the primary
fill.

Raw material

There is no evidence for the working of the tabular
flint observed im situ in the Middle Chalk during
excavation. All the worked flint seems to have
been produced from small, often irregular,
nodules with pronounced surface convolutions.
The cortex can be 15mm or more thick, composed
of a porous outer layer and a denser, rather chert-
like, inner one. The flint is dark grey to black in
fracture and is much flawed, with frequent
thermal fractures and cherty inclusions as well as
fossils and internal voids. Such flint does not seem
to occur in the Middle Chalk within the
immediate area, although inspection of further
local exposures would be necessary to confirm
this. However, it corresponds closely to the flint
which abounds in the Upper Chalk some 300m to
the south-east.

Flakes from ground implements (Table 3)
indicate that these were treated as raw material,
perhaps after they had broken. Dorsal scars on the
largest flake (Figure 10, L13) suggest that the axe
from which it came was systematically flaked
down. It and the other flakes retaining areas of
grinding stand out from the assemblage by their
generally lighter colour. Axes may have been
brought to the site as finished implements,
especially as the only evidence for biface
manufacture is a single possible thinning flake
from feature 1295.

INVESTIGATION OF THE WHITESHEET DOWN ENVIRONS 1989-90 161

Table 3. Whitesheet Hill: Composition and incidence of flint

1 2 3 4 6 7 8 Burnt Broken Burnt
Unworked

Primary ditch - - 9 1 20 1 3 15 221 384g
Ditch recut 4 3 6 - 27 - 13 10 329 371g
Internal features 116 248 161 4298 12599 = 1389 16 131 6805 7706 50545g
1 = Irregular Waste 4 = Chips 7 = Flakes from Ground
2 = Cores 5 = Flakes Implements
3 = Core Rejuvenation Flakes 6 = Blades 8 = Retouched Forms

Flint-working
Salient features of the material include the
relatively low level of blade production (Table 3)
and the high proportion of cores which are
unclassifiable or fragmentary (125 out of 251, ie.,
50%). The latter is due to the frequency of burning
(Figure 12) and to the frequency with which cores
split along thermal fractures while being worked.

Samples of chips, flakes and blades were
selected for attribute analysis from contexts
providing adequate numbers of complete,
unbroken and unburnt artefacts with the aim of
detecting technological variation between
industries from: 1; the primary fill and the recut of
the causewayed enclosure ditch (n=341), and 2;
features located in different parts of the interior
(n=900). A similar methodology was applied to
1303, to examine the assemblages from what
appeared to be earlier and later cuts in a single
sequence of features. The results for the features in
the interior showed little variation, either
horizontal or vertical.

There is only one complete blade core (Figure
10, L4), although others are represented among the
fragments and L9 may have been crested in
preparation for blade production. Sixty single
platform and 42 multiplatform flake cores were
recovered as well as five keeled, non-discoidal
forms. Cores were normally worked from platforms
prepared by flaking off the rounded end of a noduie
although thermal fractures also served as platforms.
Plain, non-cortical butts are consequently
~ dominant (archive). Many cores, like L7, seem to
have been used to produce a few flakes and then
abandoned and 17 examples may be considered to
be no more than tested nodules. The extensive
flaking of L5 is rare. Platforms were, however,
sometimes rejuvenated by the removal of rather
irregular core tablets such as L10 or flakes like L11
struck along the junction of platform and core face.
Core faces often exhibit a mass of hinge fractures,

with problems in flaking caused by cherty
inclusions in the flint and by the thick, dense lower
layer of cortex. Flakes such as L12 may have
resulted from the deliberate removal of an
intractable core face. The mean weight of cores is
84g for cores from the ditch and 111g for cores from
other contexts.

A single regular, subspherical flint
hammerstone was recovered from the primary fill
of the enclosure ditch. Some 10%-15% of flakes
from the primary fill of the ditch and some 30-40%
of flakes from the interior features may have been
soft hammer struck (archive), on the evidence of
features such as diffuse bulbs, unfocused points of
percussion, indistinct conchoidal fractures and
occasionally lipped butts (Ohnuma and Bergman
1982, 169). Such features may, however, be pro-
duced by soft stone hammers including cortical
flint ones. Areas of battering on the cortex of some
cores and tested nodules, among them L6, indicate
that they did indeed serve as hammers. Cortical
flint pebbles seem to have been similarly used at the
Etton causewayed enclosure in Cambridgeshire
(Middleton 1989, 45).

Blades and blade-like flakes are concentrated in
the middle size-range of removals, although some
bladelets are present. They are more frequent
among the material from the features of the interior
than among that from the primary ditch fill, and are
marked by relatively frequent platform edge
abrasion and low extents of dorsal cortex (archive).

The rarity of blades is not simply a reflection of
the recovery of numerous, predominantly squat,
small flakes by sieving, since visually distinguished
blades form only 4% of the manually retrieved
material from the primary ditch fill but 7% of the
sieved material from the interior features (Table 3).
In metrical terms, when removals less than 20mm
long are excluded, as is usual in the presentation of
breadth: length ratios, only 7% of the removals from
the primary ditch fill and 13% of those from the

162

THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

Fig. 10 Flints from the causewayed enclosure L1-L13

INVESTIGATION OF THE WHITESHEET DOWN ENVIRONS 1989-90 163

0
WA/JC (e

pan

Wenn
ITT

Key: Serration : Edge gloss

Fig. 11 Flints from the causewayed enclosure L14—L25

interior features have breadth:length ratios of less
than 2:5, the most frequent ranges being
respectively 3:5-4:5 and 2:5-3:5 (archive).

Among complete chips, the most frequent
diagnostic forms are core front chips, characterised
by an elongated form, central ridge, small butt,
feathered edges and straightish profile (Newcomer
and Karlin 1987, 33-34). Their presence
corresponds to the regular removal of overhang

‘from core platforms by platform edge abrasion
(Figure 10, L4). The near absence of faceting chips
matches the rarity of platform faceting, which was
recorded on 1% of the flakes in the samples (listed
in archive). Retouch chips are scarce, correspon-
ding to the low proportion of retouched forms. A
few bulbar scar chips are present, translucently
thin, with feather terminations and with bulbs of
percussion on both faces. Complete chips are

generally fan-shaped, broader than they are long
and non-cortical. Most lack a complex sequence of
dorsal scars and many end in hinge fractures.

Retouched forms

The composition and incidence of retouched
forms are summarised in Table 4 and detailed in
archive. Like the low frequency of blades, the low
percentage of retouched forms, 0.7% overall (Table
3), cannot be attributed solely to large-scale
sieving, since retouched forms amount to only
0.6% and 1.7% of the manually recovered material
from the primary fill and recut of the causewayed
enclosure ditch, proportions comparable with the
0.7% from the interior features. If the small
fraction is discounted, retouched forms. still
account for only 1% of the material from these
contexts.

164 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

Table 4. Whitesheet Hill: Retouched forms

1 2 3 4
Primary ditch - 2 - -
Ditch recut - 1 1 1
Internal features 3 23 6 -

1 = Leaf Arrowheads

2 = Flake Scrapers

3 = Scrapers on Thermally Fractured Fragments
4 = Borers

5 = Serrated Pieces

The two commonest forms, scrapers and
serrated pieces, were made on some of the larger
flakes from the assemblage. Four scrapers are
elongated, including L17 (Figure 11). Four,
including L16 and L19 have oblique or squared
ends. Apart from overall size, the main criterion
employed in the selection of scraper blanks seems to
have been thickness. Some seem to have been made
on the distal ends of plunging flakes and others,
like L21, have near-vertical retouched edges. This
feature is particularly marked in the seven scrapers
made on non-flake blanks, most of them, like L22,
on thermally fractured fragments.

While many serrated pieces are made on thin,
elongated, straight-edged blades or flakes like L25,
almost half are made on squat, even irregular flakes,
some with sinuous or concave edges like L23 or
L24. Variations in flint type among flakes retaining
areas of grinding suggest that at least two axes were
present, although no refits have been found. One
may be represented by L13 (Figure 10) and a
smaller flake, both from successive layers of feature
1291. Another, with squared sides, by four small
flakes of banded flint from separate layers of feature
sequence 1297/1330/1352. The recut of the
enclosure ditch contained forms not represented in
the earlier contexts: a spurred flake (Figure 10, L1),
a notch (L2), an indeterminate biface (L3) and a
thermally fractured fragment bifacially flaked
along one edge.

Use

The teeth of many serrated pieces seem to have
been worn down by use and at least six examples, all
blade-like, have edge-gloss, generally ventral, as on
L25 (Figure 11). At least 20 blades or blade-like
flakes have worn, sometimes glossed, straight edges
and appear to be heavily used serrated pieces. The
total for this form given in Table 4 is thus an under-

5 6 7 8 9 10

- - - - - 1

1 1 - 6 2 -

87 - 1 ll - -
6 = Notch

7 = Tanged Flake

8 = Miscellaneous Retouched
9 = Heavy Implements

10 = Hammerstone

estimate. Macroscopically visible wear can
otherwise be identified confidently only on two
other pieces. One edge of a flake from pit 1303 has a
series of small, irregular, contiguous — scars
exhibiting the same degree of cortication as the
flake itself. A flake from feature 1301 has the
regular blunting described by Smith (1965, 92) as
class a utilisation and by Whittle (1977, 38) as
bevelling.

Discussion

The fresh, sharp condition of the small assemblage
from the primary rubble fills of the causewayed
enclosure ditch indicates that it was contemporary
with those fills. The technological similarity of this
assemblage to the material from the ditch recut
(archive) combines with the generally more
abraded condition of the latter to suggest that much
of it may have been derived from earlier deposits or
from the surface, rather than contemporary with
the small quantity of Peterborough Ware also
present.

The recut did, however, contain implement
forms, among them LI1-L3 (Figure 10), not
recovered from the primary fills or the interior
features and generally rare in earlier or middle
Neolithic industries. Ll, for example, is
comparable with spurred flakes found in the upper
levels and on the surface at Windmill Hill, but not
in the primary levels (Smith 1965, 105). Some,
although perhaps a minority, of the material from
the recut is likely to be of later Neolithic date.

Distinctions between assemblages from the
primary ditch fill and the interior features are
unlikely to be due entirely to differential recovery.
When only those flakes with areas greater than
400mm? are compared, to exclude the bias
introduced by sieving the fills of the interior
features, those from the ditch remain generally

INVESTIGATION OF THE WHITESHEET DOWN ENVIRONS 1989-90 165

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Fig. 12. Distribution of worked and burnt flint

larger and less blade-like than those from the
interior, with less frequent platform edge abrasion
and more frequent hinge fractures and linear or
punctiform butts. The assemblage from the primary
ditch fill is distinguished by its technology as well as
by the near-absence from it of burnt material.
While more blade-like than those of the ditch,
‘the flake proportions of the material from the
interior features still fall at the broader end of the
range for earlier or middle Neolithic industries
(Healey and Robertson-Mackay 1983, table 11).
There is a marked contrast with, for example, the
dominance of blade and narrow flake production in
the industry from the inner ditch of the Maiden
Castle causewayed enclosure (Edmonds and
Bellamy 1991). While the reasons for this may have

been partly functional, the heavily-flawed raw
material used at Whitesheet Hill may have been
partly responsible.

The high frequency of serrated pieces among
the retouched forms is matched in other broadly
contemporary industries (Healey and Robertson-
Mackay 1983, table 9). The wide range of blanks on
which they were made, exemplified by L23-L25
(Figure 11), is rarely so. In most industries serrated
pieces were made on straight-edged blades or blade-
like flakes, a choice of blank which has prompted
the suggestion that they were mounted serially as
elements of composite knives or sickles. This would
scarcely be possible with such pieces as L23-L24.

It is noteworthy that in the Whitesheet
collection edge gloss, a frequent feature of serrated

166 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

pieces elsewhere, is confined to the more blade-like
examples, such as L25, and to worn blades or blade-
like flakes which were probably once serrated.
While the more regular serrated pieces may have
formed part of sickles or knives, the less regular
ones are likely to have had other uses.

The distinctive raw material of the seventeen
flakes from ground implements reinforces the
impression that the ground axes of middle
Neolithic industries are often made of different
flint from that of the assemblages in which they
occur. This observation has been made in relation
to the industries of Windmill Hill (Smith 1965, 86),
Carn Brea, Cornwall (Saville 1981, 138), Staines
(Healey and Robertson-Mackay 1987, 95) and
Spong Hill, Norfolk (Healy 1988, 33) among others.
In some cases this may reflect informed, highly
selective use of local resources whilst in others it
must reflect transport of objects or raw material.
Both indicate the value attached to the axes
themselves.

The common condition, technology, typology
and composition of the material from the interior
features, even between layers of successive cuts
1303 and 1368, strongly suggests that it was
deposited within a short space of time and from a
common source, an impression heightened by the
presence of joining fragments of the same sarsen
rubber in feature 1291 and feature 1293 (see
below).

Its composition, encompassing knapping
debris, used implements and broken grinding
equipment, suggests that it resulted from a range of
domestic activities. A large part of it was
furthermore burnt with other material including
unworked flint, animal bone, wood and nutshells.
Once this was done, the combined assemblage,
burnt and unburnt, must have been pushed or
shovelled into the features or transported to them
in containers. It is otherwise difficult to see how so
many minute chips and spalls could have been
deposited there.

The seat of the fire is likely to have been closest
to feature 1293, where burnt material was most
frequent, falling off towards the south-east (Figure
12). The near-absence of burnt material from the
ditch may be an extension of this fall-off, reflecting
the 30m which separated the ditch from the nearest
feature. It is impossible to tell whether the
deposition of burnt material in layer 1351, towards
the top of the primary ditch fills, represents the
same event as the deposition of massive amounts of
burnt material in the interior features.

GROUND STONE
by Frances Healy

Seven fragments of utilised stone were found
within the interior features, comprising two
conjoining pieces of a ferruginous sandstone
rubber, four pieces of sarsen saddle quern and a
sarsen maul or hammerstone. No _ detailed
petrological identifications have been carried out,
those given here are provisional. Quantities of
small burnt and unburnt sarsen fragments were
extracted from a number of samples taken from the
interior features and it is possible that further
utilised pieces remain to be identified.

The two pieces of sandstone rubber were found
in adjacent fills of feature 1291, two of the quern
fragments were also found in this feature although
there was no evidence that they had been used as
packing stones. A third fragment was found in 1368
and a fourth in the basal fill of feature 1330. The
sarsen pounder was recovered from the shallow
feature 1293.

Pebbles of ferruginous sandstone and sarsens
are found on and within the Upper Greensand
which lies immediately to the west of Whitesheet
Hill, at the base of the chalk escarpment. However,
the transport of such artefacts over longer distances
was indicated at Hambledon Hill, Dorset, where
sandstone rubbers found within pits in the main
causewayed enclosure (Mercer 1980, 23) may well
have been extracted from deposits close to Exeter
(ibid. 62).

Sarsen saddle querns have been found at other
causewayed enclosures. A fragment of one was
found within the fills of the enclosure ditch during
the most recent excavations at Maiden Castle,
Dorset (Laws 1991, 230 and fiche M7:E7) and
another one was found in a Neolithic pit at the same
site (Patchett 1943, 322).

ENVIRONMENTAL DATA

During the excavation animal bones were
recovered by both hand and sieving to provide
information about the function and economy of
the enclosure. These data were augmented by a
controlled programme of bulk sampling for
charred plant and charcoal remains. Information
about land-use and the nature of the landscape was
obtained from combined samples of land snails
and pollen.

INVESTIGATION OF THE WHITESHEET DOWN ENVIRONS 1989-90 167

Economy

Animal bones,

by 7M. Maltby

All bone fragments from manual recovery were
recorded in detail and unidentified fragments were
recorded where feasible into size categories (large
mammal; sheep-sized mammal; rodent, etc.).
Details of butchery, tooth eruption, pathology and
measurements were all recorded and are retained in
the archive. Identified fragments from sieved
samples were also recorded in full, whereas
unidentified fragments were not placed in size
categories.

The causewayed enclosure ditch fills

A total of 226 well-preserved fragments of animal
bone was recovered. Gnawing damage is slight and
surface erosion on the bones was uncommon,
suggesting that much of the material was buried
soon after disposal. Of the bones 132 came from the
basal fill of the ditch (1354; Table 5a). These
include 49 bones of an immature sheep of between
six and ten months old. There is no evidence of
butchery and it is assumed that this skeleton was
dumped in an articulated state. Most of the skeleton
was recovered except the carpals, tarsals and
phalanges. The absence of these small bones may
result from recovery bias or poor preservation and
it is possible that the sheep was originally dumped
as a complete carcass.

Thirty-four cattle bones, mostly from the lower
limbs and including 20 phalanges, were found in
the basal ditch fill. Several of the phalanges have
unfused proximal epiphyses and probably belong to
cattle under 18 months old (Silver 1969). Others are
fused and belong to at least one older animal. Some
appear to be from the same skeleton and it is
conceivable that two metatarsals, a metacarpal
(from an immature animal) and two tarsals
belonged to another individual.

Most of the 18 pig bones appear to have been
deposited together and it is feasible that the bones
belonged mainly to one or two animals. Two fairly
substantial sections of red deer antler were also
recovered from the basal fill, perhaps from picks
used to dig the ditch.

Very little of the material from the secondary
fills could be identified, but includes parts of a skull
with the pedicle of an unshed antler and the tip of
an antler of red deer. One context (1336) produced
16 bones representing both short-tailed (Microtus

agrestis) and bank vole (Clethrionomys glareolus)
which may have been trapped in the ditch during a
period when it lay open. Few bones were recovered
from the tertiary fills, amongst these a red deer
antler tine and a cattle tooth are the only remains
from 1334.

The recut of the ditch (1331) produced just
eight fragments of animal bone including three pig
bones (in 1328) and one cattle and two sheep/goat
teeth (1320).

Feature Group 1303

A total of 366 fragments was recovered from
manual excavation, of which 192 were identified
(Table 5b). Bones sieved from artefact samples
contributed a further 456 fragments, of which 61
were identified. The faunal assemblage in all
contexts is dominated by pig bones with cattle and
sheep/goat fragments identified only in small
numbers. The earlier lower fills (1346, 1342) of pit
1303 produced similar assemblages with pig
providing 85% of the identified fragments. All parts
of the body are represented and there is no apparent
bias towards any particular areas of the carcase. A
few bones form a number of small associated
groups, mostly of feet.

Although most of the pig bones in these fills
could have belonged to two immature animals,
more individuals than this are represented. At least
two immature and one adult pig are represented by
mandibles. Five very porous bones probably belong
to foetal (or possibly neonatal) skeletons. Nine pig
bones bear evidence for butchery and a number of
the bones are broken, indicating that processing of
at least some of the carcases had taken place.

Generally cattle bones were poorly represented
but at least three cattle are represented by humeri,
all with butchery marks (from 1342 and 1346); 39
unidentified large mammal fragments probably
also belong to cattle. The small number of
ovicaprid bones include the distal end of a sheep
metatarsal that has been made into a tool. Sieving
produced no further species excepting one rodent
femur.

Only 45 fragments were found in re-cut 1368
from manual retrieval (Table 5b). Of these, 31 are
pig, including fragments of three thoracic vertebrae
and three ribs probably from the same animal. Most
of the remaining fragments are from the head and
feet. From sieving, a further 56 pig bones were
recovered with small loose teeth, metapodials and
phalanges well represented. 42% of the pig sample
from manual retrieval consists of loose teeth and

168 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

Table 5 Whitesheet Hill: animal bones

a) Animal bones from the enclosure ditch (manual retrieval)

Cattle

Sheep/goat

Pig

Red deer

Unid. large mammal
Sheep-sized mammal
Unid. mammal
Short-tailed vole
Bank vole

Unid. vole

Eroded
gnawed
Loose teeth
Burnt

Primary
1336

1332

1335

b) Animal bones from features 1303/1368 and 1293 (manual retrieval)

Feature

Context

Cattle

Sheep/goat

Pig

Red deer

Unid. large mammal
Sheep-sized mammal
Unid. mammal

Eroded
Gnawed
Loose teeth
Burnt

c). Animal bones from other interior features, manual retrieval

Feature

Context

Cattle

Sheep/goat

Pig

Unid. large mammal
Sheep-sized mammal
Unid. mammal

Eroded
Gnawed
Loose teeth
Burnt

- recut 1368
1302 1338

1 2

9 22

3 4

3 l

1 2

4 3

1301
1300

---- 1303 ---
1342 1346
9 9
4 Z
68 68
25 14
47 35
26 14
6 14
1 1
6 3
4 6

- - - - Secondary - - - -
1351 1333
3 12
1 4
11 10
2 5
19 -
- 11
< 2
26 1
Dn See ee ee 1293
1329 1292
- 3
1 4
- 4
] =
1295 -------
1321 1322
2 1
l aa
4 4
8 4
1 1
: 2
4 1
] =
4 1

Recut ditch

1328 1320

Wo! 8

Tertiary
1334
1
1
1
1
1323 1350
5 1
1 :
4 :
3 2
20 -
8 1
12
7 Z
] ¢
27; 4
1359 1290
3 i
l :
2 2
- 1
- 1
l r
- 1

1317 1318

INVESTIGATION OF THE WHITESHEET DOWN ENVIRONS 1989-90 169

d) Summary of identified bones from the causewayed enclosure

- -Enclosure ditch - -

Manual retrieval Overall Ex. assoc.
Cattle 56 25
Sheep/goat 54 5
Pig 26 22
Red deer 5 5

Sieved retrieval

Cattle - -
Sheep/goat - -
Pig - -
Red deer - .
Ex. assoc = Excluding associated bones

- - - 1303/1368 - - - 1293 Others
Overall Ex. assoc Overall Overall
19 19 9 14

6 6 3 1
167 156 4 15

: 2 6 i

- - 3 2

5 5 5 3

56 56 21 26

4 3

bones of the feet compared with 68% from sieved
samples (archive). Sieving confirmed the
dominance of pig bones in this feature group.

A butchered cattle radius from 1302 is the only
bone identified to another species from manual
excavation while sieving produced a fragment of
sheep/goat humerus from 1338.

Pit 1293

Only 77 fragments were recovered by manual
retrieval methods from this shallow pit of which 53
were from context 1323 (Table 5b). Overall, 38 were
burnt and only 22 could be identified to species, of
which cattle is the most common. Six antler
fragments, probably all of red deer, were recovered,
one of these had not been cast from the skull. Pig
and sheep/goat are the only other species identified.
Large mammal outnumbers sheep-sized fragments
amongst the unidentified material.

Sieving confirmed the presence of large
numbers of very fragmentary burnt bones, with
more than 1300 fragments from six sieved samples,
over 1200 from 1323. A total of 843 (61%) of the
sieved bones were burnt. Only 33 fragments could
be identified to species, of which 21 are pig, perhaps
suggesting that manual recovery in this case had
been biased towards the retrieval of larger bones
and cattle in particular. Loose pig teeth and foot
bones are again well represented in the sieved
samples. Sheep/goat and cattle bones and red deer
antler fragments were also recovered from the
sieved samples in small numbers.

Other interior features

Four other features produced small assemblages of
animal bones (Table 5c) and these were
supplemented by the retrieval of larger numbers of

fragments from sieving. The number of identified
fragments in these assemblages was small. Cattle
and pig were again the most common with a few
sheep/goat bones and red deer antler fragments.
Multiple feature 1301 produced a small group of
associated cattle bones. Only a few burnt bone
fragments were found in this feature in contrast
with the large numbers of burnt flint in this
context.

Discussion

The limited extent of the excavation did not
produce a large faunal sample capable of answering
detailed questions about the pastoral economy of
those who used the causewayed enclosure nor about
the patterns of disposal of the bones. However,
there were some interesting aspects of the
assemblage that merit further discussion.

The presence of partial and complete carcases of
domestic stock in the basal fills of the causewayed
ditch may represent structured deposition. Only a
small section of the ditch was excavated, but a sheep
skeleton and the feet of two cattle had been
discarded in it. The cattle feet may represent
skinning or butchery waste. However, there is no
evidence for butchery on the sheep skeleton.
Similar deposits have been observed at Hambledon
Hill (Legge 1981, 173) and Windmill Hill (Jope
1965; Whittle 1990, 107; Grigson 1999). Several
other small groups of associated bones of cattle and
pig were found in the interior features at
Whitesheet Hil!. The antlers may also have been
symbolic depositions.

Only the pig assemblage produced a sample
large enough for detailed analysis (archive). Sieved
samples consistently produced more small bones of
the feet and loose teeth than normal retrieval.

170 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

However, there was no clear evidence for spatial
patterning in the disposal of different parts of the
carcase.

The cattle assemblage also shows no major bias
towards any particular areas of the body, although
most of the metapodials and phalanges were found
in discrete associated groups and several small
groups of vertebrae were also discovered. In
contrast to the assemblage from Hambledon Hill
(Legge 1981), there is no indication from this small
sample that cattle skull and mandible fragments are
under-represented.

Pigs of under one year to over three years of age
are represented (tooth eruption and epiphysial
fusian data archive). A small number of very porous
bones indicate the presence of foetal or neonatal
pigs. The samples of cattle and sheep/goat are too
small to permit comment on mortality rates other
than that both immature and adult animals are
represented.

Most of the 38 fragments which bear butchery
evidence (archive) consist of fine cuts but in one or
two cases a heavier implement has produced chop
marks. Of 12 butchered cattle bones, five humeri
have cuts associated with the disjointing of the
distal end from the radius and ulna and one radius
bears corresponding marks near its proximal end.
Twelve pig bones also bear butchery marks
associated either with disjointing or filleting.

Table 5d summarises the total number of
identified fragments from the causewayed
enclosure. Limited numbers of species are
represented and only domestic cattle, sheep and pig
were definitely exploited for meat. No goat bones
have been positively identified, whereas sheep is
present, in addition to the skeleton found in the
basal fill of the ditch. Red deer is only represented
by antlers and their skull attachments. No bones of
roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) have been identified
and none of the pig or bovine bones is of a size to
suggest that wild boar (Sus scrofa) or aurochs (Bos
primigenius) are represented.

The lack of wild mammal bones may simply be
a factor of small sample size. They may also have
been butchered at the kill site and their bones not
brought to the causewayed enclosure. Larger
assemblages from other causewayed camps have
produced small numbers of deer and other wild
mammal bones.

Interpretation of the relative abundance of the
domestic species is difficult because of the small
sample sizes, and the presence of associated bones,
and variations between features. Excluding

associated bones, cattle and pig are broadly equal in
the ditch fills with sheep/goat relatively poorly
represented (Table 5d). Sieved samples from
interior features, however, indicate that the smaller
pig bones and teeth are under-represented in
manually retrieved samples.

Pit 1303 and recut 1368 contained very high
percentages of pig (Table 5b). The comparatively
large proportion of butchery marks suggests that
most of the pig carcases were processed. Manual
retrieval from other internal features produced
small samples that, overall, are not significantly
different in species representation from the ditch
assemblage. Combining the total fragment counts
from normal retrieval and sieving from internal
features, pig (54%) comfortably outnumbers cattle
(23%), with red deer (11%) and sheep/goat (10%)
less common.

Excavations of other causewayed enclosures
have produced more bones of cattle than other
species (Grigson 1981; 1982), for example the
Hambledon and Stepleton enclosures (Legge 1981),
Windmill Hill (Jope 1965; Grigson 1965; 1999) and
Maiden Castle (Armour-Chelu 1991). Several
suggestions could be put forward to explain why pig
bones were more abundant in the Whitesheet Hill
deposits:

a) The assemblage from Whitesheet Hill is not a
representative sample from the causewayed enclosure.
Certainly, the full range of variability is unlikely to
have been encountered in the small section of ditch
excavated and the sample could have been biased by
the unusual concentration of pig bones in pit 1303
and recut 1368. However, other internal features also
produced higher percentages of pig bones than
recorded at other excavated causewayed enclosures.

b) The sample was too small to give statistically significant
results. Comparisons were made with the results from
the primary fills of the enclosure ditches at Windmill
Hill (Grigson 1965; 1999). The relative abundance of
cattle, sheep/goat and pig is significantly different
from those recovered by hand excavation from all
features at Whitesheet Hill. It is clear that similar
significant differences also exist between the
Whitesheet Hill assemblage and from
Hambledon Hill and Maiden Castle.

c) Pig bones were better represented because of the sieving

those

programme. This can be demonstrated from the
interior features at Whitesheet Hill but even the
unsieved samples produced relatively more pig bones
than the other sites.

d) Relatively more pigs were exploited at Whitesheet Hill

INVESTIGATION OF THE WHITESHEET DOWN ENVIRONS 1989-90 171

because local vegetation provided a more suitable habitat.
Although a greater percentage of woodland may be
indicated by the high proportion of pigs represented
and the correspondingly low levels of sheep, which
prefer open grazing, the
environmental evidence (below) does not confirm
this, although woodland products (pigs, hazlenuts,
and possibly pignut tubers) are abundant in some of
the interior features in particular. Exploitation of
woodland and/or woodland clearances is certainly
reflected at Whitesheet Hill.

e) The differences might be due to socio-cultural factors. The
Whitesheet Hill assemblage further
evidence that not all earlier Neolithic assemblages
are dominated by cattle bones, as Grigson (1981; 1982)
originally suggested. This may
importance of pigs, not simply in the relative numbers
consumed but also in the activities incorporating the
deposition episodes at Whitesheet Hill. It has been
noted that although several associated groups of cattle

conditions for

provides

reflect greater

bones were deposited in the ditch, such groups were
not as common as at Windmill Hill. Grigson (1999,
237), however, has demonstrated that structured
deposition of domestic mammals did vary in different
ditch sections and it may be that other ditch sections
at Whitesheet Hill contain relatively more cattle
depositions than evidenced here.

Environment

Land Snails
by Michael Ff. Allen

The methods of mollusc analysis were those
outlined by Evans (1972) and detailed elsewhere
(Allen 1989a; 1989b). The Shannon species
diversity index (Magurran 1988) was calculated as
this provides some indication of assemblage
composition and complexity and is applicable to
subfossil assemblages rather than total faunal
collections (Evans and Smith 1983; Evans and
Williams 1991).

~The causewayed ditch

A full sequence of 26 samples was taken from the
chalky primary ditch fills and the more humic fills
of the ditch recut (Figures 5 and 13). Shell numbers
were very low throughout the primary chalk rubble
fill of the ditch (Table 6). The mollusc assemblages
from the basal fills do not seem to represent
primary woodland, but indicate an environment
with some shade.

Numbers of shells are higher in the secondary
fills (contexts 1335, 1334 and 1333) sufficient to
make some palaeo-environmental interpretations.
Shade-loving species (Evans 1972, 194-5) predom-
inate throughout these fills, primarily Carychium
and Discus. A possible stabilisation horizon (1335)
at the bottom of the secondary fills, although
dominated by the Zonatids and Discus, also
contained more open country elements such as
Vertigo pygmaea, Pupilla muscorum and Vallonia
costata. Some open environments are therefore
indicated and although these might be the
weathered ditch sides, it is more likely that tall
herbaceous grassland, possibly with some scrub,
prevailed. A decline in the open country species, and
corresponding rise in C. tridentatum in particular,
probably indicates later grassland succession
habitats and more mesic environs of dank grass and
shrubs such as hawthorn and hazel. A reduction in
Pomatias elegans may indicate more stable
conditions, perhaps vegetational cover of the ditch
sides and fills. The continued presence of shade-
loving elements and restricted open country fauna
is indicative of shady environments beyond the
immediate ditch vicinity.

The ditch recut

The base of the recut (1328) produced a mixed
assemblage, notable for the absence of open country
species. It is likely that in the period immediately
preceding the recut of the ditch, a tall herbaceous
vegetation community existed in which some
shrubs (eg. hazel, hawthorn etc) were present. As
the ditch filled with mildly calcareous humic silt
loams, presumably largely derived from the local
soil, shell numbers dropped dramatically alongside
a significant change in the taxa present. The species
present are almost exclusively open country and
only a single non-apical fragment of any of the
shade-loving species occurs. This indicates a major
change in the local environment and probably can
be seen as the reduction of shrubs and sward height
due to more intensive grazing regimes resulting ina
stable grassland. Thus the ditch recut can be seen to
correspond to an increase in local land-use,
particularly grazing.

Internal features

Two spot samples from pits 1295 and 1303 were
analysed. Although molluscs from pit contexts are
notoriously difficult to interpret (Thomas 1977;
Allen 1995), the main aim here was not detailed
palaeo-environmental interpretation, but

172 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

20H
20H

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=
c

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NUMBERS

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Fig. 13 Mollusc histogram from the causewayed enclosure dicth

e Snails present

173

INVESTIGATION OF THE WHITESHEET DOWN ENVIRONS 1989-90

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174 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

comparison with assemblages from the ditch
sequence.

Both pits produced similar assemblages
dominated by shade-loving species and almost
completely devoid of open country taxa. The
assemblages can be compared, not unfavourably,
with the impoverished assemblages from the
primary fill of the causewayed ditch, and some
elements represent rock-rubble habitats (cf. Evans
and Jones 1973). The pit assemblages are more
typical of local woodland, or at least leaf litter as at
Hambledon Hill (see Bell et al. in prep.). The only
open country species of significance is Vallonia
costata. Although known from open woodland
habitats (Evans 1972), it is also a pioneering species
to be expected in recently cleared woodland.

Discussion
Whether the woodland that evidently existed in the
area prior to the construction of the causewayed
enclosure and excavation of the pits was primeval
or secondary woodland could not be ascertained
with certainty. Nevertheless, soon after the
construction of the causewayed enclosure there are
hints that some regeneration of the woodland did
occur but shell numbers are low and it is possible
that they reflect an influx of species colonising the
micro-environments created by the deep ditch.
Woodland regeneration is recurrent in many other
causewayed enclosures (Evans and Rouse 1991;
Thomas 1982).

It is evident that there was reuse of the area
before the ditch was recut. The local woodland or

shrubby habitat was again cleared enabling the
establishment of a tall herbaceous vegetation,
possibly lightly grazed rough pasture with some
shrubs. It was into this environment that the ditch
was recut, perhaps associated with a phase of more
intensive (?sheep) grazed grassland producing a
short dry downland turf.

Charcoal
by Rowena Gale

Charcoal was examined from contexts within seven
of the interior feature groups in order to establish
the nature of the woody vegetation in the
surrounding environment and _ provide any
indication of its exploitation. Identification and
methodology follow Gale and Cutler (2000).
Although only fragments larger than 2mm were
selected for detailed examination, some were still
too small to assess whether they arose from stem
material or from more mature wood. Any possible
distinction is indicated in Table 7.

The identifications show a uniformity of genera
throughout the features. Whilst the number of
fragments identified from each feature is variable,
the overall picture is one of a predominance of hazel,
with ash and the Pomoideae group also frequently
present, and oak and Prunus noticeably less
common. Many of the fragments were stem or twiggy
pieces. The abundance of hazel wood conforms to
the plentiful deposits of hazel nut shells in every pit
and a sample from one feature (1299) was made up
exclusively from hazel nut fragments.

Table 7. Whitesheet Hill: Charcoal Identification

Feature Context Species identified
Corylus
pit 1295 1294 21% Tks
1321 18 10*
1322 3 5
pit 1303 1346 34* 8
recut 1368 1302 58* 8*
1338 61* 8*
saucer pit 1293 1323 29 1
1350 1 -
posthole 1326 1325 - 1
natural feature 1297 1337 48 es
1343 2 -
feature 1299 1298 - -
feature 1301 1300 l -
?RB feature 1291 1325 el 1

1290 4 -
NOTE: * indicates stem material.

Fraxinus

Quercus Pomoideae Prunus
. 10 if
2 24 7

‘poorly

INVESTIGATION OF THE WHITESHEET DOWN ENVIRONS 1989-90 175

In most features the upper layers contained the
greatest abundance of charred wood and the widest
range of genera, while neither oak nor Prunus
occurred at the base of the sampled features. The
paucity of these two genera must, however, be
balanced with the relatively small overall quantities
of charcoal recovered from the lower feature fills.

Land clearance prior to construction of the
causewayed enclosure may have extended into the
immediate vicinity, allowing for early secondary
regrowth. The numerous deposits of hazel nut
shells indicate that shrubby, fruiting forms of this
species were plentiful, suggesting an open aspect
perhaps not far from the site. At least one member
of the Pomoideae family was relatively abundant,
possibly growing as scrubby hawthorn recolonising
some of the cleared areas and/or as whitebeam.
Blackthorn may also have been competing in this
situation. Clearance may have involved the felling
of oak/ash woodland. Regeneration from the
stumps of immature trees would have occurred
unless they had been removed or killed. Such
regrowth would have produced numerous shoots
that if regularly cut would have resulted in coppice
stools. Hazel also coppices easily and would have
fruited well in this situation, especially if managed
on a cycle of more than six or seven years.

Stem material of ash and hazel was present in
several of the pits, lending support to the potential
for coppice woodlands. Oak, however, was very
represented in the charred samples
examined, suggesting that it was either not
available or deliberately not selected. While oak,
and indeed ash, may not have survived on the
downlands around the enclosure, it would be likely
to have grown on the clay soils at the base of the
hill.

Pollen analysis
by Robert G. Scaife

A sequence of 31 samples was taken from the fill of
the recut enclosure ditch (1331) to elucidate the
character of the vegetation and land-use during the
second phase of the monument. Pollen preservation
is always marginal in alkaline soils of rendzina type,
especially on chalk. Initial assessment showed that
pollen was preserved, although not as well as that of
other sites studied elsewhere in southern England
(Scaife 1984; 1995; Scaife in Cleal and Allen 1994,
79). Samples were thus selected for analysis.

Seven samples were selected for pollen analysis
with standard techniques used for extracting pollen

and spores (Moore and Webb 1978). Because of the
low absolute pollen frequencies encountered,
relatively large sample sizes of up to 10ml were
used. In addition to ‘normal’ chemical procedures,
micromesh (104m) sieving techniques were also
used for removal of inorganic fractions. Pollen
identification and counting was carried out under
normal and phase contrast illumination at
magnifications of x400 and x1000 using an
Olympus biological research microscope.

Pollen preservation in calcareous soils

It is a common misconception that pollen is not
preserved in the highly aikaline and oxidising
environments encountered on archaeological sites
on chalk. Pollen preservation is usually poor but it
has been proven that valuable information
regarding palaeoecology of chalklands can be
obtained (Scaife 1984; 1995; Dimbleby and Evans
1974; Dimbleby 1978). Such analyses have to take
into account the poor preservation of the pollen and
the possibility of skewed data resulting from the
differential preservation of pollen taxa.

At Whitesheet Hill the fills of the recut are
relatively chalk-free silty loams and are
undoubtedly derived from the typically worm-
sorted upper humic soil horizons (Ah) on the edges
of the ditch. These fills most probably derive from
surrounding soils very shortly after the re-cut and
may provide evidence of the vegetation growing at
this time. As in Dimbleby’s analysis of postholes at
Ranscombe Camp, Sussex (Dimbleby 1986 and
pers. comm.) such were analysed in the hope of
providing data on the local environs.

The pollen data

Absolute pollen frequencies were measured in
samples from 78, 96 and 100cm. Raw pollen data
and absolute pollen frequencies (where ascertained)
are presented in Table 8. A total of seven samples
produced pollen and spores. In the case of samples
from 54cm and 64cm pollen was extremely sparse.
Pollen sums from the remaining samples range
from 100-200.

The data (Table 8) clearly shows that
Liguliflorae (Jaraxacum type) is the dominant
taxon in all samples analysed. This is highly
characteristic of pollen in downland soils where
differential preservation favours this robust pollen
type. Similarly, the relatively high values of certain
fern spore types must also be noted. The seven
pollen levels analysed are all characterised by
relatively few pollen grains of arboreal taxa

176 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

Table 8. Whitesheet Hill: Pollen counts from the ditch recut.

(Full counts only undertaken on samples at 78, 96 and 100cm)

context 1319
depth cm 44 54 64
TREES
Betula
Pinus
Quercus
Fagus - . -
Tilia 2 - -
Alnus
SHRUBS
Corylus type 3 - -
Salix - - -
Calluna - - -
HERBS

Ranunculus type - - -
Medicago type - - -
Trifolium type - - -
Poterium sanguisorba - - -
Convolvulus - . -
Scabiosa - - -
Plantago lanceolata 1 - 1
Plantago major type - 1 -
Liguliflorae 77 10 21
Bidens type
Centaurea
Sagittaria
Gramineae
Cyperacaea -
Unident./degraded - - .

Ne!
a
'

APF (pollen grains/ml) - - -
pollen sum 100 12 22

SPORES

Pteridium 16 5

Dryopteris type 4
Polypodium 9 6 9
Sphagnum 1
Pre-Quaternary - 1

Spore sum 32 17 15

1328
78 &8 96 100
i 4 3 '
5 1 - 3
1 1 5 3
: 2 2 1
- - 3
- 3 1 Z
= ] = =
1 1 - -
- 1 1 1
1 = 3 =
- 1 1 1
l < £ =
s il l 2
- - 2 1
8 7 - 12
1 1 - -
168 66 64 45
= 1 oS =
11 11 17 28
- - 3 3
1743 - 1340 2132
200 100 101 100
88 19 29 33
26 9 30 39
12 10 5 15
- iI = =
l ms = =
127 39 64 87

including Pinus, Quercus, Fagus, Tilia and Alnus,
and by the dominance of herbaceous taxa. Pinus is
likely to originate from a long distance away and
may be over-represented in these poor pollen
preserving conditions. The presence of tree pollen
and especially that of Quercus indicates the possible
existence of some woodland although not in the
vicinity of the enclosure.

Alnus is noted in a number of samples and
undoubtedly relates to local alder carr communities
in the Stour valley, 0.5km to the north-west of the

enclosure. Small numbers of Tilia pollen grains are
found at 44cm. Whilst this may be residual from
earlier woodland, it is likely that some Tilia
woodland remained in the region since it has been
demonstrated that such woodland was widespread
in areas of southern England from c. 7000 BP until
its asynchronous disappearance through later
prehistoric forest clearance (Turner 1962; Scaife
1980; Greig 1982).

Hinton (below) and Gale (above) have recorded
a substantial number of Corylus nut fragments from

INVESTIGATION OF THE WHITESHEET DOWN ENVIRONS 1989-90 Wi

pits. Whilst these were undoubtedly a valuable food
resource, they indicate that scrub woodland may
have been present on, or near, the occupation site.
Small numbers of Corylus pollen grains are present
but in view of its high pollen production it appears
that by the later Neolithic represented by these
upper ditch samples, hazel had been largely
removed from the local environment.

Herb pollen numbers comprise the larger part
of the pollen spectra, dominated by Compositae and
Liguliflorae in large part due to the effects of
differential preservation in their favour. Their
presence indicates that these Compositae were
growing on the site at some earlier stage. It is not,
however, possible to state precisely whether these
are indicative of pasture, as is often assumed. The
presence of other herb taxa indicates that grassland
was dominant. Ranunculus type, Plantago
lanceolata, Poterium sanguisorba, Scabiosa, Centaurea
and Gramineae may be indicative of such a
grassland and perhaps pastoral habitat. The
absence of cereal pollen and arable weeds in the
spectra may be used as evidence (albeit negative) for
a grassland rather than cultivated environments.

A substantial number of spores of ferns were
also recovered, especially in the lower levels of the
section (context 1328, 78-100 cm). Spores, as with
Compositae, are similarly frequently over-
represented in pollen spectra from chalk soils.
Pteridium aquilinum, Polypodium and monolete
spores of Dryopteris type are relatively abundant.
Polypodium and Dryopteris type are likely to have
remained for longer periods in the soil than most of
the pollen types noted above and represent an
earlier period of woodland growing on the site.
Although Polypodium is frequently found in open
habitats (e.g. dunes, epiphytic on trees and on
walls) this may be regarded as a largely woodland
taxon.

Preridium aquilinum has also frequently been
recorded in later prehistoric soils from the
downlands (Dimbleby and Evans 1974). Similar
abundances of Pteridium have been recorded from
the soils underlying South Street Long barrow
(Dimbleby and Evans 1974; Dimbleby 1986) and at
Hazelton North Long Barrow, Gloucestershire
(Scaife 1990, 218). This has posed an interesting
problem discussed by Dimbleby (1986) who notes
that bracken does not occur as a normal component
of the chalk vegetation today, being characteristic of
neutral to acid soils. This may be a result of spores
being introduced from dung of cattle which had
been grazing on older and non-poisonous bracken

(Dimbleby 1986, 144), or manuring, or possibly the
presence of locally more acidic soils. Bracken was in
the past a valuable resource for a variety of uses
including domestic and animal bedding (Rymer
1976; Clapham and Scaife 1988). It is also possible
that bracken may have regenerated subsequent to
forest/scrub clearance when soils were thicker, more
stable and possibly decalcified. Pteridium, a
frequent colonizer after fire whose spores are also
relatively resistant to decay, may derive from an
earlier stage of woodland and soil characteristics.

Conclusion

Pollen analysis of base-rich chalk soils is always less
satisfactory than that of acid soils. In spite of this
useful interpretations have been made, especially
when compared with data from plant macro-fossil
and molluscan analyses. Results shows that the
local environment was largely devoid of trees,
although some localised growth and/or woodland at
some distance may be indicated by sporadic poilen
occurrence of oak, lime, beech, hazel and alder.
Herb pollen are dominated by Compositae
(Liguliflorae) largely over-represented through
differential preservation. This latter taxon, along
with other herbs, is suggestive of a grassland
environment. There is no indication of cereal or
other cultivation. That woodland and/or scrub
existed prior to clearance is evidenced by
substantial quantities of spores (again differentially
preserved) of Polypodium and _ monolete
(Dryopteris type) that have remained in the buried
soil. The characteristic presence of Pteridium in
chalk soils is also noted at this site. While the
possibility of manuring is considered, it seems
more plausible that the spores of bracken may
result from earlier episodes of burning of
woodland/scrub on the site, perhaps when soils
were of a different character.

Plant remains
by Pat Hinton

Charred plant remains floated from _ the
environmental samples were sorted by binocular
microscope at x7-40 magnification. Samples were
from internal features and dominated by fragments
of hazel nut shells. Fragments larger than c. 2 x
2mm were removed and added to those previously
extracted from the 5.6mm and 2mm fractions of the
residues during the flotation procedures. These are
recorded by weight in Table 9 although many
smaller fragments remain unsorted.

178

Table 9. Whitesheet Hill: Charred plant remains, summary data
Several samples from different contexts were analysed from each pit, but are summarised by feature (details in archive).

Feature (pits) pit pit saucer pit post hole nat.feature feature feature ?RB feature
1295 1303 1293 1326 1297 1299 1301 1291
no of samples/sampled contexts 3 3 1 4 1 1 3
Total volume (litres) 30 30 19 vi 40 8 10 25
Corylus avellana L. nut shell
fragments, (g) 20 26.5 104.5 2 155 17 By) 6
Prunus spinosa L. (stone) - 1 - - - - -
Conopodium majus Loret (tuber) - - cell - - - 4 -
cf C. majus (tuber fragments) oe - + - + ar orate
Vicia/Lathyrus sp. (seed) . - . - 1 - - -
Solanum cf nigrum L. (seed) - 1 - - - - - -
Galium sp. (seed) - - - - - - 1 -
Triticum cf dicoccum Schubl.
(grain) 1 - - - - - -
(glume base) - - - - 1 - -
Triticum monococcum/dicoccum - - - - - - 1
Triticum sp. 1 - - - . - -
Cerealia indet. (grain fragments) + + ? - + ? - +

+ = less than 10 fragments

Wild plant foods

Hazel nut shell fragments were found in every
sample taken from features within the causewayed
enclosure. There were no whole nuts and very few
fragments were more than a quarter of a whole
shell. A number of fragments indicate impaction or
crushing suggesting that they were deliberately
broken by hand. There is no indication of more
refined techniques such as those suggested by
Scaife (1992), nor of natural separation at
germination. No traces of kernels were found nor
signs of gnawing by animals.

Crude estimates of the number of nuts involved
experimentally charring six modern nuts gathered
from close to the site (in late autumn). These gave
an average weight of 0.53g, thus 0.5g was taken as
an estimate of the charred weight of a single nut.
From this we can calculate that the fragments
(125.5g) from context 1341 (pit 1297) would
represent about 251 nuts and the 82g from context
1350 (pit 1293) about 164 nuts. Using Scaife’s
(1992) methods for larger samples of Mesolithic
nuts the estimates would be at least doubled.

Tubers and fragments of Conopodium majus
(pignut, earth-nut) were identified by Jon Hather
whose microscopic examination (archive) showed
that there was no evidence of peeling or scraping of
the tubers, although the upper part of the tuber had
been removed before charring occurred. Further,
the particular nature of the enlarged vessicles
indicated that the tissues were relatively fresh when
charred rather than having been previously dried in

++ = 10-20 fragments

the ash of the fire. The sample from pit 1293
included, in addition to three whole tubers, about
30 fragments. By dividing their weight by the
weight of individual tubers, Hather estimated that
these fragments represent probably about another
eight tubers, giving a total of approximately eleven
from the sample.

A stone of Prunus spinosa (sloe) from pit 1303, is
incomplete, but its size (c. 5.5 x 4.7mm) is typical of
the small seeded sloe (var. microcarpa).

Cereals

The few grains recovered are mostly in very poor
condition. Only one, from feature 1295, is at all
well-preserved and is probably Tiiticum dicoccum
(emmer) from a one-seeded spikelet. The other
grains are very fragmentary, their surfaces almost
totally abraded. They have been identified as
wheat only by the characteristic outlines of
surviving parts of the grains. A single glume base
from 1297 is equally damaged but again likely to be
emmer.

Weed seeds

Few weed seeds were recovered and identification 1s
not certain beyond generic level. A damaged seed of
Vicia/Lathyrus sp. (vetch) is compatible with Vsativa
ssp nigra (common vetch) but the damage and
distortion makes it impossible to identify this
further. A very abraded seed of Solanum cf. nigrum
(black nightshade) is likely to be black nightshade
rather than Solanum dulcamara (bitter-sweet).

INVESTIGATION OF THE WHITESHEET DOWN ENVIRONS 1989-90 179

The third seed was an incomplete example of
Galium spp. (bedstraw, cleavers) and its size
suggests one of the smaller bedstraws, eg. Galium
verum (lady’s bedstraw).

Seed impression

The Neolithic pottery was examined for possible
impressions of plant remains. A latex cast showing
part of a grain of emmer was obtained from a sherd
from context 1342.

Discussion

It is common for Neolithic sites in Britain to
include a range of wild fruits and seeds but only
small amounts of cereals (Moffet et al. 1989) and the
results here are comparable. The predominant wild
plant food represented is hazel, which grows in a
range of soil types but only flowers and fruits when
allowed light, such as in open woodland, woodland
margins, and scrub.

There exists the possibility that the shrubs or
trees from which the nuts were gathered were not
entirely ‘wild’ and it might be that a harvest of nuts
was a further aim in the management of woodland
by the clearance of light-obscuring vegetation,
perhaps in conjunction with coppicing. Fruits other
than hazelnuts are represented only by one sloe
stone. Sloe, like hazel, grows in woods, hedges and
scrub and needs light to flower and fruit freely.

Tubers of pignuts have a history of collection
for food or medicine (Grigson 1975, 232), but are
rarely recorded from archaeological sites. They
have been recorded at Windmill Hill (Fairbairn in
Whittle et al. 1999), but poor preservation
prevented conclusive identification of tubers in
Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age samples from
Robin Hood’s Ball, Wiltshire (Carruthers 1990).
Moffet (1991) has identified pignuts (Conopodium
majus) from a pit containing a Middle Bronze Age
cremation burial at Barrow Hills in Oxfordshire.

Tubers cannot be easily pulled from the soil and
require careful digging out so are unlikely to be
_ included by chance. The presence of pignut tubers
in association with hazel nut refuse in two of the
pits (and probable fragments in others) at
Whitesheet Hill is fairly convincing evidence for
their collection as food at this site. After flowering
the stems and leaves of pignut plants die back and
by July only the tuber is alive (Grime et al. 1988,
202). This suggests that they were dug before mid-
summer, but the hazelnuts that accompany them
could only have been gathered in the autumn, when
pignut plants would not be visible. Since the tubers

were charred soon after digging it would mean (if
the tubers and nut shells were burned at the same
time), either that the nuts had been stored until the
spring, or that locations where tubers grew densely
was known. Although the pignuts and hazel nut
fragments occur in the same contexts in the pits, it
does not necessarily follow that they were burned at
the same time.

Pignuts are plants of damp woods, found today
in the more acid soils of permanent grassland which
have developed from cleared woodland.
Uncommon on chalk soils, it is likely that tubers
originated in wooded areas or on thicker more acid
soils locally.

The seeds of the probable vetch, nightshade and
bedstraw, today are found in hedges, scrub, arable
or grassland, may have become included in the
deposits as weeds of cultivated cereals, perhaps
originating in the margins of cleared areas.
Common vetch seeds, however, are edible, while
bitter vetch (Lathyrus montanus) has tuberous
rhizomes long known to be edible (Grigson 1975,
153-4).

The impression given by the results from the
Whitesheet Hill samples is that cereals formed a
minor part of the vegetable diet but possibly they
are under-represented. Poor condition of the few
grains and fragments indicates charring at high
temperatures and subsequent damage, and it may
be that they represent only a fraction of what was
originally burned.

There is too little evidence to discuss whether
cereals were grown near the enclosure or whether
they were brought in from elsewhere, perhaps as
ears or spikelets after preliminary threshing.

OTHER SITES ON
WHITESHEET DOWN

Three other features on Whitesheet Down were also
examined (Figure 1), and are summarised below.
They comprise a Beaker pit on Mere Down and two
cross-ridge earthworks (Whitesheet Linear and
Mere Down Linear).

Mere Down Pit

On the eastern side of the Mere Down plateau the
pipe-trench cut through a small U-shaped pit
(Figure 1) 0.6m wide and 0.6m deep (Figure 14).
The base of the dark fill (1260) was rich in charcoal,

180 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

Fig. 14. Mere Down Beaker pit

with some of the fill recovered and wet-sieved in
order to recover both environmental and
artefactual evidence.

Two sherds of a collared, rusticated Beaker with
paired, plastic, finger-nail decoration were
recovered (Figure 14). Decoration was in vertical
columns on the body but horizontal above the
collar. Collared Beakers are rare and usually
associated with domestic sites rather than funerary
contexts (Clarke 1970, 36-7). The 39 fragments of
both burnt and unburnt animal bone included pig
(including two skull fragments), one ovicaprid
bone and a tooth of a short-tailed vole (Microtus
agrestis). Fifteen pieces of worked flint included a
scraper manufactured on a thermally fractured
fragment. Two fragments of burnt hazel nut shell
were recovered from the sieved sample.

Whitesheet Hill Linear Ditch

This ditch (SAM 442), over 275m long, lies between
the causewayed enclosure and the hillfort (Figures
1 and 2) and is aligned north-east to south-west. A
well-preserved bank is extant on either side of the
ditch although eroded in several places by
trackways. The pipeline crossed the ditch directly
on the line of the current access track thus the
banks were no longer extant and the ditch was only
just visible prior to excavation. It has been
suggested that this feature is Neolithic (Oswald et
al. 2001, 65 and 136).

The ditch (1500) was 0.65m deep and 2.2m wide
at the surface with an irregular profile (Figure 15),
being much steeper on the eastern side. A further
irregularity was a small step at the base of the ditch
that may indicate a recut, although this could not
be substantiated in the fill sequence. Weathering
and/or the use of the track may account for the
surface width of the ditch, the profile indicates that
1.7m may be closer to the original size.

Angular fragments of chalk 50-100mm in size
formed the main part of the basal fill (1510) along
with compact decayed chalk and some large flint
nodules. A secondary fill (1507) made up of fine
chalky material and unworked flint nodules is
probably aeolian in origin and is reminiscent of fills
of ditches in the Dorchester area of Dorset, e.g.
Mount Pleasant (Wainwright 1979) and Alington
Avenue (Allen 2002a) which have been dated to the
Bronze Age.

A small ditch recut (2m deep and V-shaped in
profile) was recorded within the upper part of the
fill sequence. This was aligned directly along the
main linear ditch. A sample column was taken from
the section in order to examine the environmental
evidence.

Thirteen pieces of worked flint were recovered
from the main ditch, and a further six from the
small recut. The condition of the material from the
main ditch ranges from fresh to dulled and iron-
stained. Most pieces were flakes, including a single
scraper. A single small fragment of ovicaprid

181

INVESTIGATION OF THE WHITESHEET DOWN ENVIRONS 1989-90

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182 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

(sheep/goat) bone was recovered from the basal fill
of the ditch.

Few land snails were recovered from the sample
column, especially when compared to the potential
aeolian deposits from other sites mentioned above.
Snails were predominantly open country species
(Table 10) and those catholic species that occurred
(Trichia hispida) are common in open grassland and
arable environments. The deposit probably
accumulated during a prolonged phase of arable

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activity resulting in deflation of local soils and
deposition of wind-blown silts in the ditches. This
assemblage seems to be more typical of Bronze Age
rather than Neolithic hilltop environments.

Mere Down Linear Ditch

A second linear ditch (SAM 417) lies to the east of
the hillfort, towards the Beaker pit (Figures 1 and
2). As with the Whitesheet Hill Linear, there are

1500

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Fig. 15 Whitesheet Hill Linear and Mere Down Linear

INVESTIGATION OF THE WHITESHEET DOWN ENVIRONS 1989-90 183
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banks on both sides. It is aligned north-south and
can be traced for over 600m across Mere Down. The
pipeline route crossed the monument immediately
adjacent to the current access track, at a point where
the banks were no longer extant and the ditch was
only just visible prior to excavation.

Upon excavation (Figure 15) the ditch proved
to be 1.05m deep and 3.1m wide at the surface. It
had moderately sloping sides and a flat base, with a
ledge on the lower part of either side indicating the
possibility of a recut. A basal fill (1280) comprised
angular chalk rubble with a few unworked flint
nodules. Above this deposit were secondary fills of
loamy soils (1279, 1283), again with occasional flint
nodules, sealed by a thin layer of very fine flint
gravel, almost certainly water-lain. This deposit
was quite level and may represent the base of a ditch
recut for drainage purposes. Above it a stone-free
layer of soil (1282) was cut by a small concrete-lined
drainage ditch (1273).

Eighty-one probably residual, abraded worked
flints were recovered. Two sherds of grog-tempered
pottery, possibly from the same vessel, from the
lower ditch fills and a single iron nail or stud from
the thin gravel deposit 1277 are probably Roman, a
few fragments of animal bone were also recorded.

A column of samples through the ditch fill
sequence was analysed for molluscs and four
distinct mollusc assemblages can be detected
- (Figure 16). The basal fill (1280) produced an
assemblage dominated by shade-loving species and
characterised by a high proportion of Vitrea
crystallina and V. contracta with Trichia hispida and
Carychium tridentatum. Although most of this
assemblage can be classed as woodland, the Vitreas
and Carychium have affinities with the catholic

group (e.g. Kuiper 1964) and are common in chalk
grassland succession communities (Cameron and
Morgan-Huws 1975). More significant is that the
long ungrazed grassland on the steeper slopes of
Whitesheet Hill today supports a fauna dominated
by Vitrea crystallina, Carychium, accompanied by
Nesovitrea hammonis, Trichia hispida and the
Introduced Helicellids (Allen pers. obs.). We can be
reasonably certain that the local landscape in which
the ditch was cut was one of tall ungrazed
herbaceous grassland and some shrubs (perhaps
blackberry and hawthorn).

Fill 1279 produced high shell numbers and a
change in species composition. Although shade-
loving species still predominate, Carychium and
Trichia are now the main components and a number
of more open country and even xerophilous species
are present. This assemblage is indicative of
grassland in which light grazing has occurred. The
secondary fill 1283 produced a_ significant
reduction in the shade-loving group and is
dominated by Trichia and Limacidae. Open country
species are present in low, but increasing, numbers
and comprise mainly Pupilla muscorum and Vertigo
pygmaea. These restricted assemblages with low
species diversity indicate harsher open dry
conditions and possibly arable contexts; Pupilla
and Vertigo both inhabit bare ground environs and
Hellicella itala is common in ancient tilled areas
(Evans 1972, 181), but equally may indicate
environs of short-turfed grazed grassland.

The tertiary fill (1282) produced assemblages
almost largely comprised of open country species
Pupilla, Trichia, Vertigo, and Helicella. These are
assemblages typical of short open dry grassland,
and the reduction in Helicella can be seen in part as

184 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

a result of competition for the Introduced
Helicellids, but also possibly increased grazing
intensity. This episode can be attributed to the
medieval period or later by the occurrence of
Introduced Helicellids (Kerney 1977).

Molluscan evidence indicates that the ditch was
dug when long, probably ungrazed, grassland
existed. It is thus evident that Bronze Age tillage
had ceased and grassland had become established.
It is likely that within this tall herbaceous
vegetation other shrubs and bushes were dotted
around the hilltop, possibly more prominent on the
steeper slopes. Soon after the ditch was dug there is
evidence for light grazing of the grassland. The
ditch may therefore relate to pastoral farming
management. It is generally thought that until the
medieval or post-medieval periods grazing was
fairly light. More intensive grazing producing short
turfed dry grassland or even limited tillage can be
seen in this last period.

DISCUSSION
by Michael F. Allen and Mick Rawlings

Discussion of the nature of Neolithic activity at
Whitesheet Hill is restricted by the limited area
examined within the pipeline corridor. Information
about the date and nature of the earthworks, and
activities in the interior have been elucidated,
however, along with an environmental sequence
and assemblages of various artefact types. This data
can address some of the fundamental questions
about the causewayed enclosure, the landscape in
which it sits, and the landscape that it served.

The presence of a large undated circular
enclosure on another spur of the hill, defined by an
uninterrupted ditch, serves to highlight the
number and range of monuments at Whitesheet
Hill.

Date of Construction and Activity

Radiocarbon dates for the primary fill of the
causewayed ditch indicate construction about 3730-
3370 cal BC, which is directly comparable to dates
for the enclosure ditches at Windmill Hill (Ambers
and Housley 1999), Maiden Castle (Ambers et al.
1991), and Hambledon Hill (Bayliss et al. in prep.).
More significant, however, is the date range of the
features from the interior. These clearly fall into a
range of c. 3720-3330 cal BC, proving that both the
interior pits and the enclosure are contemporary
events within the earlier Neolithic. These

contribute to an increasingly coherent group of
dates for causewayed enclosures in Wessex.

Nature of the Monument

The form of the Whitesheet enclosure is described
above and summarised elsewhere by Oswald et al.
(2001, fig. 8.4, 157); it is typical of many such
enclosure monuments. Excavation, however,
revealed the scale of the ditch to be far from the
1.35m depth recorded by Piggott (1952, fig. 2). The
size and shape of the ditch was unprecedented for a
causewayed enclosure, being 2.8m deep, with a
narrow 1m wide and 1m deep almost vertical sided
‘slot’ in the base making it almost defensive in form
and quite unlike the typical broad, flat-bottomed, U
shaped profiles of other enclosures (see Oswald et
al. 2001, fig 3.8).

site typical typical ~— form

width depth
Maiden Castle 3-—4m _ 1.2-1.6m_ broad flat bottomed
U-shaped
very broad flat
bottomed U-shaped
broad flat bottomed
U-shaped

Windmill Hill 2.5-4m_ 0.8-2.3

Hambledon Hill c 1.8 ileal

This begs two questions: Did Piggott reach the
bottom of the ditch in his cutting I (Piggott 1952,
fig 2); and is the function of this causewayed
enclosure significantly different from others?

Outlook and Landscape

From the enclosure circuit there is a clear series of
views over the local landscape. From the eastern
side the monument looks down the local deep-sided
dry valley, and on the opposite side, the chalk
escarpment falls away to the south and north-west
giving panoramic views of the Blackmore Vale. The
enclosure is conspicuous from all the landscapes it
views. However, these views are not as clear, nor as
striking in all directions from the interior of the
enclosure. None of the artefact assemblages
suggests any defensive or offensive events as seen at
Carn Brae (Mercer 1974; 1999) that might have
provided some light on the nature of the excavated
ditch profile. The ditch at the location excavated
was, however, across the most vulnerable location
facing a spur towards the hillfort rather than steep
scarp slope. Piggott’s ditch faced on to the opposite
spur towards the undated enclosure (Figure 2).
This might suggest that Piggott had only reached

INVESTIGATION OF THE WHITESHEET DOWN ENVIRONS 1989-90 185

compacted primary fill rather than the true base of
the ditch.

In many respects, Hambledon Hill provides the
most obvious comparison for the range of
monuments and activities now documented on
Whitesheet Down. The similar physical location of
the two sites has been noted before (Thomas 1991,
36): both occupy the very edge of the chalk uplands,
at the junction with the low clay vales to the west.
Both have more than one enclosure and although
the uninterrupted ditched enclosure at Whitesheet
Hill has yet to be investigated, similar enclosures
have been found which are of earlier Neolithic date,
e.g. Bury Hill, Sussex (Bedwin 1981).

Like those at Hambledon Hill, the monuments
on Whitesheet Down occupy an extensive area of
upland plateau, separated from the rest of the
surrounding chalk massif by a number of linear
ditches or cross-ridge earthworks. Excavation
undertaken as part of the pipeline work indicates
that at least one of these earthworks was
constructed in the Romano-British period.
Elsewhere within Wessex a range of dates has been
suggested for this monument type, ranging from
the Neolithic through to Romano-British.
Although the excavated examples at Hambledon
Hill are clearly contemporary with the causewayed
enclosure (Mercer 1980, 40), this is a rare
occurrence. More typical dates are from the 2nd
and Ist millennia BC (Fowler 1964; 1965; Rahtz
1990; Cunliffe 1991, 36-9).

Activity and Function

As with many Neolithic monuments there is
evidence for earlier, non-monumental activity. At
Whitesheet this comprises a dated and weathered
residual pig bone in the base of the recut of the
enclosure ditch that dates to the Early Neolithic
(4250-3350 cal BC).

Evidence of activities within the enclosure is
provided by the pits. Although severely truncated
along the trackway and old coach road, they
nevertheless provided artefactual assemblages of
pottery, flint, bone and charred remains. Certain of
the pits also contained sarsen but more often large

flint nodules, including some reused ground stone

implements. Earlier Neolithic pottery of South-
Western Style (Whittle 1977) and considerable
quantities of flint debitage, much of it burnt, were
also recovered. The flint was not calcined, but a
very high proportion showed signs of burning
(Healy pers. comm.).

All of the pits contained solution features or
pipes. This may reflect the high concentration of
solution features on the hilltop, or there may be a
more formal link. Excavation of pits through clay
may have been easier than through chalk, or the
clay may have been a valued resource. The
coincidence of Neolithic pits and natural features
such as tree hollows and solution features is also
noted by Healy at Hambledon Hill (Healy in
Mercer and Healy in prep.).

The faunal assemblage from the pits was
dominated by pig, with cattle, some red deer antlers
and a few sheep/goats present. Again much of this
material was burnt, and the pit fills contained
considerable quantities of charcoal and charred
hazelnuts. The features themselves showed no signs
of internal burning suggesting that the material had
been introduced, presumably from fairly close by,
probably within the enclosure.

Overall much of the debris seems to indicate
food waste. There are no ‘placed’ items, just
discarded material. No other obvious activities are
immediately evident in the record. This aspect may
find parallels in the midden layers in the outer
enclosure of Maiden Castle (Sharples 1991, 253-4),
also seen as the products of activities taking place
within the enclosure.

Whether or not these activities could be
described as the disposal of domestic refuse or a
more structured mode of deposition is a question
intrinsically linked to the discussion of the function
of causewayed enclosures (cf. Smith 1971, 100;
Gardiner 1988, 306-15; Thomas 1991, 34; Oswald et
al. 2001). At Hambledon Hill, Dorset (Mercer 1980,
23), most of the gabbroic pottery, at least two
volcanic rock axes and all of the groundstone rubbers
were found in pits within the interior of the main
causewayed enclosure. The flintwork tended to be
biased towards particular artefact types and red deer
antlers, a rarity in the ditch fills, occurred in the pit
bases (see also Gardiner 1988, 312-3). Some of the
pits at Hambledon Hill are described as having held
posts which were rammed into the pit fills, and were
suggested to represent markers or possibly structural
elements; but Mercer concluded that ‘it would be a
fair interpretation to infer that no feature on the
interior suggests a purely domestic function and
that, where the evidence is at all positive, irrational
considerations would appear to be paramount in
their digging, furnishing and filling’ (2bid, 25).

No spatial patterning of the interior features
can be observed at Whitesheet Hill, largely because
of the linear nature of the excavated area. It is clear

186 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

that the pits are located within the central area,
away from the ditch and internal bank, and have no
direct physical relationship with them. An almost
total absence of burnt material from the ditch fill
sequence was recorded by these excavations and
those by Piggott (1952), and indicate that activities
resulting in the deposition of such material were
confined to the more central part of the enclosure
and did not extend as far as the ditch.

A second, undated, phase of activity is
indicated by redefinition of the enclosure ditch.
The upper part of the ditch sequence was clearly
recut with one rim sherd of Mortlake-style
Peterborough Ware in its fill. The radiocarbon date
from animal bone retrieved from the base of the recut
indicates that the bone is residual. Peterborough
Ware, however, is not infrequently found in
secondary contexts at earlier Neolithic monuments,
including causewayed enclosures such as White-
hawk Camp, Sussex (Curwen 1936) and Maiden
Castle (Sharples 1991). Sharples suggests that
recutting existing ditch circuits and the addition of
extra ditch circuits in other causewayed enclosures
may relate to changes in, and redefinition of, the
function of the site (Sharples 1991, 255).

Food and Feasting

The dominance of pig is unusual for causewayed
enclosures where cattle usually dominate. At
Hambledon Hill, Dorset, the contemporary
enclosure of a much larger area by the use of
outworks and natural steep slopes has been seen as a
means of controlling herds of cattle for short
periods of time (Mercer 1980, 60). It has also been
argued (Edmonds 1993, 113) that the presence of
cattle at causewayed enclosures is linked to the
status of the animal, i.e., high status is granted/
confirmed by the deposition or consumption at a
prestigious site. At Whitesheet Hill, although cattle
are represented in the faunal assemblage, there is no
indication of any differentiation in the mode of
deposition of this animal. The high occurrence of
pig may relate to the observation that most of the
animal remains are food debris, and there is little
other activity represented.

Burning is. clearly evident from the
preponderance of burnt flints and charred remains
from the pits. The site of this burning was not
identified, but at other sites such as Etton, for
instance, areas of intense and/or repeated burning
were identified on the buried soil (Challands in
Pryor 1998, 73-7). The lack of identification at

Whitesheet Hill may relate to the limited area
examined, but also to the possibility that no buried
soil existed or that burning on a former chalkland
ground surface within the enclosure may have left
no obvious physical trace.

Neolithic Hilltop Environment and
Land-use

The nature of the landscape context around
causewayed enclosures, evidence for woodland
clearance and the scale of any clearance (Thomas
1977; Evans and Rouse 1991; Bell et a/. in prep.), are
considered important factors in understanding how
these monuments operated (Oswald et al. 2001;
Darvill and Thomas 2001, 16). Even the ubiquitous
presence of woodland in the Neolithic is now
questioned (Allen 1997, 278; 2002b). We must
admit that the evidence for the pre-monument
environment at Whitesheet is slim.

The poor molluscan assemblages from the
primary fills of the ditch indicate the presence of
shade, possibly open woodland or shady grassland
and shrubs. We cannot be sure of the nature of those
shady habitats, there is no possibility of indicating
the presence, or clearance, of woodland around this
monument, let alone the scale of clearance and
proximity of woodland (cf. Bell et a/. in prep.). More
significant are the coeval assemblages from the pits
that suggest the present of woodland and leaf-litter.
We may tentatively propose that the ditch circuit at
least was cleared of woodland, but the monument as
a whole was probably located within a more
extensively cleared area. There are insufficient data
to hint at woodland regeneration, as seen at a
number of other sites such as Maiden Castle (Evans
and Rouse 1991) and the Sussex causewayed
enclosures (Thomas 1982). By the time of recutting
of the enclosure ditch in the later Neolithic, tall
herbaceous vegetation existed, possibly as lightly
grazed pasture.

If woodland surrounded the enclosure, it would
have provided suitable pannage for the pigs that
formed the major element of the faunal remains
recovered.

Archaeological Development of
Whitesheet Down

Evidence for Neolithic activity is restricted to the
enclosure itself and its interior, but may also
include the undated enclosure to the north (Figures

INVESTIGATION OF THE WHITESHEET DOWN ENVIRONS 1989-90 187

1 and 2). Using land snail evidence the cross-ridge
earthwork adjacent to the main enclosure is not
Neolithic (contra Oswald et al. 2001, 65 and 136).
The barrow overlying the earthwork is thus later
again (cf. Oswald et al. 2001, 136).

Until the construction of the Iron Age hillfort
there is no subsequent intensive activity on the
Down. Activities isolated by both time and location
occurred throughout the Bronze Age, and these
include the isolated Beaker pit on Mere Down
which contained a collared Beaker and may
indicate domestic and settlement activity rather
than a funerary deposit. Presumably Bronze Age
barrows scattered across the hilltop, many of them
false-crested , may allude to settlement in the dry
valley to the west or the clay vale to the east. The
cross-ridge earthworks on Whitesheet Down and
Mere Down are more enigmatic. While the former
indicates land division probably in the Bronze Age,
the latter seems to suggest similar activity in the
Romano-British period.

The most coherent record, however, is that of
the prehistoric land-use on the Down derived
largely from land snail evidence from the Beaker
pit, and cross-ridge earthworks. The Bronze Age
environment and land-use was strikingly different
from the Neolithic. Tillage and soil deflation (wind
blown soil erosion) is indicated by aeolian deposits
in the Whitesheet cross-ridge earthwork and its
accompanying restricted and xerophile mollusc
faunas loosely attributed to the Bronze Age. Thick
humic, calcareous soils (brown earths) in the
enclosure recut, were degraded to silty calcareous
brown earths or rendzinas by the time the
Whitesheet cross-ridge earthwork was infilling. We
cannot be sure whether the environmental
sequence from the Whitesheet linear covers the
Iron Age, but when the Romano-British cross-ridge
earthwork (Mere Down Linear) was dug, intensive
Bronze Age agriculture and grazing had ceased.
This ditch was dug through a long, probably
ungrazed, grassland in which small shrubs and
bushes very likely existed with the tall grassland of
a typical chalk downland. Soon after construction
of the ditch, there is evidence to suggest that the
downland was lightly grazed. More intensive

grazing producing a short grass sward occurred
only in the medieval or post-medieval periods. The
Mere Down cross-ridge earthwork, at least, may
therefore be a part of pastoral land management
and division.

Evidence so far recovered from Whitesheet Hill
indicates that activities classed as non-domestic or,

using Mercer’s (1980) terminology, ‘irrational’ took
place in the earlier Neolithic and later. These
activities included the construction of major
monuments and smaller-scale activities such as the
deposition of a Beaker with associated pig bone ina
shallow pit described above.

PART 2: WHITESHEET
QUARRY
Mick Rawlings

The pipe trench descended from the south-west of
Whitesheet Hill down the scarp slope of a small
spur. At the base of the slope, immediately below
the disused quarry (Figure 1), a dark brown buried
soil was sealed beneath a light, highly calcareous,
silty hillwash, and beyond which two ditch sections
and two pits were identified. These features and
hillwash sequence were only recorded in the pipe-
trench section. A number of artefacts were
recovered manually and samples taken for snails
and charred remains.

The buried calcareous brown earth (1225) lay
directly on the chalk bedrock nearest the quarry
and was sealed by a pale brown, highly calcareous,
silty hillwash up to 0.4m thick, the result of
downslope wash-out of chalk mud from the quarry.
The dark, grey-brown, humic silty loam was
recorded in section over a total distance of 76m and
was c. 0.30m thick. Within it was a band of burnt
sandstone fragments, probably dumped material
rather than structural. Calcareous hillwash
extended further down slope than the buried soil
and overlay the natural geology.

The feature nearest Whitesheet Hill was a U-
shaped ditch (1237), 1.8m wide at the surface and
1.6m deep, which was the only feature sealed by the
buried soil. It was filled with an homogeneous
brown soil, while the buried soil that sealed it filled
the upper part of the ditch. This ditch was located
towards the downslope (western) end of the buried
soil. A second U-shaped ditch (1234) was recorded
nearly 75m to the west and was I.3m wide at the
surface and 1.4m deep, but only sealed by hillwash.

Two pits were recorded between the two ditches.
The first (pit 1211), about 50m downslope from the
first ditch was U-shaped 1.5m wide, 1.6m deep and
sealed by hillwash. A series of fills contained small
fragments of chalk and much charcoal. A second pit
(pit 1215) was recorded 10m to the west of the first
and 11m upslope of the second ditch. This pit was

188 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

1.3m wide and 1.4m deep and its fill sealed by a
0.25m thick layer of stone blocks, mainly
sandstone, but with some greensand. This layer
represented an attempt to cap the pit, maybe in
anticipation of subsidence. This deposit in turn was
sealed by hillwash, but here was only 0.15m thick.

The site appears to be a small, possibly
enclosed, settlement. The two U-shaped ditches
were similar in profile and may represent a single
enclosure c. 75m across. The only two features
within the putative enclosure were pits. This
hillwash sealed all of the other features.

FINDS
by Elaine L. Morris

Small quantities of a wide range of artefacts were
recovered from excavated contexts including three
worked flints; four pieces of fired clay, possibly
from a loomweight or daub; burnt flint; a fragment
of slag, possibly from a hearth base, and stone
including fragments of sarsen saddle quern. In
addition, 46 fragments of animal bone (397g)
included 10 cattle, 8 ovicaprid and 5 pig (id. M.
Maltby) were recovered.

Pottery

A total of 71 sherds (1559g) of pottery (Figure 16, 1-
11) was recovered from excavated contexts and 25
sherds (17g) from sieved samples. This collection is
mainly Early Iron Age in date, with some earlier
Middle Iron Age material and one rim sherd (45g)
of wheelthrown, Romano-British greyware.
Overall, the condition of the pottery is sharp with

many large sherds and very little evidence of post-
depositional abrasion.

Despite the small number of sherds recovered,
fourteen different fabrics from six principal fabric
groups were identified (Table 11). The sequence of
fabric type numbers follows on from those used for
the pottery from the causewayed enclosure (Cleal,
above). The most common groups are calcareous
fabrics that represent over 75% of the pottery. The
oolitic and shelly limestone-tempered group (C4—
C6) contain varying amounts (20-50%) of crushed
limestone containing shells and ooliths in clay
matrices, C6 also containing 5-10% of iron oxides.
The shell-tempered group (Group S3-S7) contain
crushed shell in various amounts (20-50%) and
degrees of sorting in clay or slightly sandy clay
matrices.

The remaining fabrics consist of a fine
micaceous fabric (M1), a flint-tempered fabric (F3),
a grog-tempered fabric (G1) and four sandy or silty
fabrics (Q4-7), of which one (Q6) also includes rare
flint and limestone fragments.

The area around Whitesheet Quarry contains a
variety of calcareous deposits of the Jurassic period,
including the Corallian and Oolitic series, which
could have been utilised to produce the calcareous
fabrics. These deposits are not located immediately
adjacent to the site but liec. 6-8km to the south and
west respectively. In addition, the flintbearing
fabrics (F3 and Q6) might be local products since
the site lies on chalk, and the sandy fabrics,
particularly Q7, may have been produced from the
Upper Greensand and Gault deposits nearby which
include glauconite-bearing sandy clays.

Table 11. Whitesheet Quarry: Quantification of pottery by fabric type.

Context/feature 1271
Fabric no/wt
C4 6/173
C5 3/212
C6 -

F3 -

Gl 1/3

S6 -

1225 1211 1215
no/wt no/wt no/wt
9/366 12/177 9/4*
1/210 1/18 -
5/24 - -

- 2/8 -
/2* 1/9 =
2/N7: - -
4/16 3/5, 1/2*
1/7 - ZILX
1/8 - -

- - PH eas
6/182 - -
1/19 - -
10/57 - 5/35
4/4* - -

Weight in grammes: *denotes sherds retrieved from sieved samples

INVESTIGATION OF THE WHITESHEET DOWN ENVIRONS 1989-90 189

Such variety of fabric groups is not unusual. A
similar range was recognised in the Danebury
(Cunliffe 1984, 308) and Old Down Farm (Davies
1981, 88-93) assemblages, Hampshire, as well as in
the Early Iron Age pottery from All Cannings Cross
(Cunnington 1923, 29-31), the Late Bronze-Early
Iron Age sequence recovered from Potterne (Morris
1991; 2001) and the Late Bronze Age pottery from
Norton Bavant Borrow Pit, Warminster (Mepham
and Morris 1992), Wiltshire, which lie in similar
geological zones to Whitesheet Hill. The two sherds
of fabric Q7, for example, are extremely similar to
material from Potterne and Norton Bavant.

This small collection includes seven different
diagnostic vessel forms. Six jar types (R21-5) are
represented including a large, slightly shouldered
jar in fabric C4 (R21; Figure 17, 1), a barrel-shaped
or ovoid form (fabric $3) with a bevel-edged rim
(R22; Figure 17, 2) and a small ‘proto-saucepan pot’
in fabric $4 (R26; Figure 17, 4). One rim (R24) in
fabric Q5 has finger-tip impressions on the exterior
rim edge but the remainder are undecorated. The
forms are all of Early to Middle Iron Age date with
close parallels at sites such as All Cannings Cross
(Cunnington 1923), Boscombe Down West
(Richardson 1951) and Swallowcliffe Down (Clay
1925).

A slack-profile, necked bowl with curled over
and rounded rim in fabric C4 (R30; Figure 17, 3) is
irregularly fired and pitted on the interior surface
below the rim. The type is well-known at, for
instance, Danebury (Cunliffe 1984, type BC1.1, cp.
4-7, fig. 6.61), Little Somborne (Neal 1980, fig.
13,4), Little Woodbury (Brailsford 1948, fig. 4,1pp;
fig. 5,10u) and Swallowcliffe Down (Clay 1925, pl.
5,4) in Middle Iron Age contexts of the 5th-lst
centuries BC.

In addition, there is an undiagnostic rim (R99),
an undecorated, sharply angled or carinated
shoulder from a bowl in fabric Q6 (A20; Figure 17, 6;
cf. Danebury (Cunliffe 1984, type BA2, cp.3-4, fig.
6.55) and two decorated sherds: one with incised
lines (Figure 17, 11) in fabric Q6 and one fragment of
a furrowed bowl in Q4. Fragments of two flat bases,
one with a flaring edge (Figure 17, 8 and 10) were

_also identified in fabrics C4 and Gl respectively.

A few sherds (c. 15%) displayed evidence of
surface treatment: an applied red slip to the exterior
surface of the sharply angled bowl sherd (Figure 17,
6), on both surfaces of the furrowed bowl sherd and
possibly on another sandy fabric example, and ten
examples of burnishing on the bowls (Figure 17, 3
and 6) and on several sherds from unoxidised,

straight-walled vessels. The latter indicates that
these particular sherds belong to the Middle Iron
Age tradition of surface treatment, while the red-
slip technique is usually an Early Iron Age
tradition (Cunliffe 1984, 248).

Pitting, which occurs when an acidic liquid is in
contact with a calcareous fabric, was observed on
the interior of nine calcareous fabric sherds,
including one jar and one burnished bowl (Figure
17, 1 and 3), as well as a large vessel of indeter-
minate form and three other burnished sherds.
Single examples of carbonised food and sooting
were noted on unburnished sherds in fabric SS.

Illustrated sherds (Figure 17)

1: (C4, slack-shouldered jar R21, buried soil layer.

2: §3, ovoid jar with bevel edged rim R22, buried soil
layer.

3 C4, slack-profile necked bow! R30, buried soil layer.

4 $4, proto-saucepan pot jar R26, buried soil layer.

5: Q5, vertical rim jar R24, buried soil layer.

6: Q6, carinated bowl A20, buried soil layer.

7: C4, small slack-profiled jar R23, pit 1211.

8 C4, splayed base B1, pit 1211.

9: Q4, everted rim R25, pit 1211.

10: G1, base B2, pit 1211.

11: Q6, decorated sherd D1, clearance 1271.

Discussion

The variety of jar and bowl forms identified
amongst this small collection of handmade pottery
is typical of the Early Iron Age tradition and the
beginning of the Middle Iron Age ceramic phases.
The finger-tip decorated rim, the furrowed bowl
sherd and the carinated bowl sherd, both of which
are red-slipped, and possibly the incised sherd, are
all typical of the decorated Early Iron Age period
(Cunliffe 1978, 1984).

Red-slip surface treatment, formerly known as
‘haematite-coating’ (Middleton 1987), disappeared
in Wiltshire and Hampshire by the end of the 5th
century BC (Cunliffe 1978). Slightly shouldered,
ovoid and slack-shouldered jars were common in
the 5th century BC and later (Cunliffe 1984, 248), as
at Boscombe Down West, Danebury and Little
Woodbury. A pit at All Cannings Cross contained a
slightly shouldered jar and an _ ovoid jar
(Cunnington 1923, pl. 29,9 and pl. 46,1). The proto-
saucepan pot form is best dated to the 4th century
BC and later (Cunliffe 1984, 248, figs 6.18-19). The
undecorated bowl was current in the Sth to 4th
centuries BC.

190

THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

0 100 200

SEJ

Fig. 17 Pottery from Whitesheet Quarry

INVESTIGATION OF THE WHITESHEET DOWN ENVIRONS 1989-90 191

«J 2
% vos & > SY
5 SIF Fo go o
SSeS o 2 © @
s oa. Os ° 2
o OSS SEL Oo SD 0 &
= SP VES we .%& O se
o PSS SEES ESE LS
: % 2 S20 9 .& : o \
S NODVOETOTK TF LL
[oo fl WE ae ie ee [ee ls E (s
33
ee
23 |
20
| +
42
x ++ |
14
+ |: + +
27
+ + cement
197 z ve
58 | [
11 +
18
000000 00 010 0 o
Eee eet Vee Er. ei J re a er re

Absolute numbers

90 0 7o Oo ce) oO 50
eo

100 %

Fig. 18 Mollusc histogram from the Iron Age soil and colluvium at Whitesheet Quarry

Although there are only 94 sherds in the
collection, it is interesting to note that there are no
Middle Iron Age saucepan pots, which date from
the 3rd century BC to the pre-Conquest period.
Therefore, the range of material represented spans
the All Cannings Cross phase of the Early Iron Age
through to the earlier part of the Middle Iron Age.

ENVIRONMENTAL DATA

A column of samples for snails was taken through
the hillwash and buried soil to provide some
environmental context, while bulk samples from
pit 1215 were analysed for charred remains.

Land snails from the buried soil

by Michael Ff. Allen

The buried soil (1225) displayed a dark humic silty
Joam, an almost apedal bB horizon, and a silty light

_ grey stone-free bA horizon with very little obvious

evidence of any biotic activity. The overlying
slopewash deposit was an amorphous,
heterogeneous silty loam, suggesting rapid
deposition of subsoil material.

The molluscan assemblage (Figure 18) from the
bB horizon was impoverished and almost
exclusively contained slug plates of Limacidae/

Deroceras (Table 10). The bA horizon, however,
produced a larger assemblage in which the
dominant species were Pupilla muscorum and
Vallonia excentrica, the latter being super-abundant.
This type of assemblage is exemplified by Evans
and Williams (1991, 122) Group 4: heavily grazed
grassland with no scrub.

Despite the highly calcareous nature of the
deposit, and lack of large clasts, the hillwash
contained surprisingly few shells. Nevertheless,
two broad groups can be detected within the
assemblage (Figure 18). The lower portion of the
deposit was again dominated by Pupilla muscorum
and Vallonia excentrica, but now accompanied by
Trichia hispida and a range of other shade-loving
species. This assemblage, although still typical of
grassy swards, is more likely to result from slightly
longer herbaceous vegetation or arable ploughwash
contexts (Bell 1983).

The upper part of the hillwash deposit
produced a slightly different mollusc assemblage
characterised by greater species diversity, an
increase in shade-loving species and a major
reduction in Pupilla numbers. A more shaded
environment is indicated here, probably
comprising taller herbaceous communities
(ungrazed) and shrubs, that may represent the

192 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

Table 12. Whitesheet Quarry: Charred plant remains.

Feature buried soil Pit 1215
Context M225; 1216 1218
Sample 1600 1603 1604
Total volume (litres) 10 9 10
Triticum cf dicoccum Schubl.
Spikelet base - 1 -
Glume bases 1 1 -
Triticum cf spelta L. - - 2.
Triticum dicoccum/spelta L. - i -
Triticum sp. - 3 1
Triticum sp./Secale cereale L. - 1
Hordeum vulgare L. - 2 -
Cerealia indet. 3+20f 3+25f 2+10f
Chenopodium album L. 1

Rumex sp. - -
Corylus avellana L. (shell fragments) Z
Galium cf aperine L. 1
Bromus secalinus L. 2 2
Unidentified seed: cf Compositae 1
Cenococcum geophilum Fr. 9

establishment of grassland succession communities
on the immediate slope along with the retention of
open grassland at the base.

Plant remains

by Pat Hinton

In addition to small quantities of oak and ash
charcoal from the buried soil and hazel, oak, and
Pomoideae charcoal from pit 1215 (id. R. Gale),
charred plant remains were recovered. Cereal
grains were as poorly preserved as those from the
causewayed enclosure. The wheat grains (Table 12)
cannot be easily differentiated and the spikelet and
glume bases which might be identifiable are also
damaged. However, two with more rounded
outlines and indications of veins on what remains
of the body of the glumes are very likely to be
Triticum Spelta (spelt), a grain resembling Secale
cereale (rye) was found in pit 1215, and two grains of
Hordeum vulgare (hulled barley) were identified,
also from pit 1215.

Nine sclerotia of Cenococcum geophilum (a
fungus) found in the buried soil (1225) seemed to be
charred and therefore contemporary with the
deposit. Modern small, black sclerotia occur
frequently amongst roots in more superficial soil
samples but can be distinguished from ancient,
charred sclerotia which are brittle and fracture in a
characteristic fashion.

With the exception of two fragments of hazel nut
shell and an unidentified Compositiae seed, possibly
of Matricaria sp., the remains included only cereals
and arable weed seeds. A possible rye grain may have
been present as a weed but, like the rye-brome
(Bromus secalinus) which is often found with spelt,
may well have been an accepted part of the harvest.
The grains and weeds recovered from the site were
probably bi-products of the treatment of crops but
these were not necessarily grown in the immediate
vicinity. A very minor component of hazelnuts only
indicates that light woodland or scrub was available
for exploitation at no great distance.

DISCUSSION

The pipeline appears to have intersected a small
enclosed domestic settlement of Early-Middle Iron
Age date located at the foot of Whitesheet Hill,
while the presence of a single piece of ironworking
slag suggests a potential industrial component.
Sites of a similar date are known within this area,
although most were excavated in the earlier part of
the last century (eg. Clay 1924; 1925) or have not yet
been fully published, for example Cow Down,
Longbridge Deverill (Hawkes 1994). A site dating
to the Middle Iron Age was found recently at Encie
Farm, near Penselwood, only 10km_ from
Whitesheet Hill (Newman and Morris 2001).

INVESTIGATION OF THE WHITESHEET DOWN ENVIRONS 1989-90 193

The Whitesheet Quarry setthement was
apparently enclosed by a well-defined ditch and
although there was no evidence of an associated
palisade, other sites in the area have shown that this
is a common feature (Cunliffe 1991). Enclosed
settlements of this period are often of a similar size
to Whitesheet Quarry and are interpreted as
individual farmsteads. The relationship between
this site and the hillfort remains unclear.

Acknowledgements

The excavations were carried out in advance of
laying the Codford—IIlchester water pipeline. Our
thanks to Wessex Water plc and their team of staff,
and to the excavation team. The project was
managed in the field by Julian Richards and
directed by Mick Rawlings. It was managed in post-
excavation by Richard Newman and, latterly, by
Julie Gardiner. We are grateful to many colleagues
for their assistance in post-excavation and for
useful discussion, in particular the contributors,
Richard Macphail, Charly French, Janet Ambers
and Ian Longworth. The illustrations are by S.E.
James.

Note

A draft of this report was completed in 1993. It was
revised for publication in 2002.

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Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History Magazine, vol. 97 (2004), pp. 197-210

A. D. Passmore and the Stone Circles of North

Wiltshire
by Aubrey Burl

Prehistoric stone circles continue to surprise. And multiply. In WANHM 27 of 1893 A. D. Passmore informed the
Society ‘of a hitherto unnoticed circle of stones’ at Coate near Swindon, and the following year he described it and the
remains of a second ring nearby. In two Notebooks, unpublished until this year, he provided more details about them
and of a possible four more in the same area. Even though he was mistaken with his ‘hitherto unnoticed’, his fieldwork
transformed previous beliefs about the number of megalithic rings in Wiltshire.

It is seldom appreciated how rich northern
Wiltshire had been in the distribution, size and
architectural complexity of its prehistoric stone
circles. Although those near Avebury are well-
known others near Swindon are almost forgotten.
Hardly realised today because of savage destruction
in the last five centuries, the countryside north of
Winterbourne Bassett once had as many as seven
megalithic rings, several within a few miles of each
other, a tight group of stone circles just south of
Swindon. Only the vestiges of one remain. (Fig. 1)

Until the end of the 19th century just two or
three of those rings were known. As well as the
questionable ring on Avebury Down there were
examples at Winterbourne Bassett and Broome,
both now destroyed. It was not until 1894 that A. D.
Passmore recorded several more in his brief report.'
That report has now been supplemented, at
considerable cost, by the Society’s purchase of
Passmore’s two Notebooks in which those circles
are described more fully. They add details to rings
whose existence modifies our understanding of the
- so-called Avebury complex.

In both Notebooks the writing, mostly in
pencil, sometimes in red ink, is confined to the left-
hand side of the page. Volume I is a soft-backed,
lined exercise book, the second a rather smaller,
hard-covered book, also lined. Each has about sixty

pages, some left blank. Being a man of catholic
interests, Passmore made notes on a miscellany of
topics: the hill-forts of Wiltshire; the value of coins
he owned; a boar’s tusk; round barrows; Dartmoor
monuments; Roman jewellery; and a murder in
Swindon.

Here, in this report, only his records of stone
circles are included. In the transcription the
spelling, changes of mind, and contradictions have
been left as they appear in the Notebooks.

Before considering Passmore’s ‘new’ sites, the
two that were already known must be considered.
The more problematical, Winterbourne Bassett
just a few miles north of Avebury, has gone. William
Stukeley was the first to mention it. In his Abury of
1743, he wrote. ‘At Winterburn-basset, a little north
of Abury, in a field north-west of the church, upon
elevated ground, is a double circle of stones
concentric, 60 cubits diameter’, referring to his
imaginary ‘Druid’s Cubit’ of 20.8 inches, sixty
being the equivalent of 31.7m. ‘The two circles are
near one another, so that one may walk between.
Many of the stones have of late been carry’d away.
West of it is a single, broad, flat and high stone,
standing by itself. And about as far northward from
the circle, in a plough’d field, is a barrow set round
with, or rather compos’d of large stones. I take this
double circle to have been a family-chapel, as we

2 Woodland Road, Northfield, Birmingham B31 2HS

198 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

Key rons C
Swindon Old Church

Coate Reservoir

Broome

Day House Farm NE and SW )
Hodson

Fir Clump, Burderop Wood

Winterbourne Bassett 1
Avebury

Falkner's Circle

10 Broadstones. Clatford
11 The Sanctuary

12 Langdean Bottom
A Swindon (0)
B Wanborough
C Chiseldon

D Marlborough

OMmANADMNEWNH

On,

Fig. 1 Map. The North Wiltshire stone circles

may call it, to an archdruid dwelling near
thereabouts, whilst Abury was his cathedral’.
Almost a hundred years later Sir Richard Colt
Hoare believed he had re-discovered it. ‘I was
enabled to find the remains of this ring, which is
situated in a pasture ground at the angle of a road
leading to Broad Hinton and consists at present
only of a few inconsiderable stones’. His map
showed the scattered stones in the corner of a
crossroads at SU 094 755, north of the lane between
Winterbourne Bassett and ‘Cleeve Pipard’ (Clyffe
Pypard) and east of another to Broad Hinton .
Having read Hoare, the Rev. Edward Duke in
1846 offered an early version ofa ley line laid out by
‘our ingenious ancestors’. He imagined a gigantic
planetarium composed of seven landscaped
concentric rings, the outermost 32 miles in
diameter. At their heads, lying exactly north-south,
were the prehistoric ‘planets’. At the centre was the
sun of Silbury Hill. At the south was Saturn,
Stonehenge. Failing to find any suitable heavenly
bodies at the north of rings 5, 6 and 7 Duke chose
Winterbourne Bassett on ring 4, ‘a fair temple of
stone’, as Venus. That unvisited and long-vanished

shrine of the goddess of love rouses no enthusiasm
in ley-liners today.

Hoare had mistaken the site but his confident
description misled all his successors. In 1881 the
Rev A. C. Smith probed the field for missing stones
‘by means of the crowbar and spade’ and in the
following year a plan was made by the Rev. W. C.
Lukis showing the remains of a concentric circle
whose diameters were 73.2m and 50.3m. Seventy
years later Alexander and Archie Thom surveyed
the same stones. Their plan showed an off-centre
stone, and a plain ring 47.6m across. (Fig. 2) *

Everyone had accepted Hoare’s irrelevant
stones but a geophysical survey of the field in 1998
rejected them. ‘No convincing evidence was
found’. In the Bodleian Library, Oxford the same
investigators examined Stukeley’s sketch of
Winterbourne Bassett. It was entitled ‘a double
circle of Stones 100 f. diam at Winterburn basset 20
May 1724 and consisted of an outer ring about
30.5m across, the largest stone on its south-west arc,
and an interrupted inner circle.

Drawn from the ring’s northern side it showed
Silbury Hill and Avebury’s church in the distance
with Tan Hill beyond them, places that cannot be
seen from the traditional site because of rising
ground. A more likely situation for the destroyed

10 ° 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 FT
=i fea]

Om t

A:- Buried sfone 375 ft
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a B:- Buried stone 427 Fc
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C’- Buried stone 544 ft
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Fig. 2 Plan of the supposed Winterbourne Bassett stone
circle. Thom, Thom & Burl, 1980, 132, S5/5.

A. D. PASSMORE AND THE STONE CIRCLES OF NORTH WILTSHIRE 199

ring is probably a little south of the lane around SU
093 753 with the barrow about a third of a mile
away in Hoare’s field.

The second known ring was at Broome, SU 167
825, 6% miles NW of Winterbourne Bassett. In the
late 17th century John Aubrey wrote:

at Brome near Swindon in Wiltshire in the middle of
a pasture ground called Long-stone is a great stone 10
foot high (or better) standing upright, which I take to
be the Remainder of these kind of Temples. In the
ground below are many thus 00000000000000 in a
right line. The ground is ye Inheritance of the right
Honable Lord Seymour.

Seymour was Aubrey’s friend of long-standing,
with whom he often stayed at Marlborough. Sixty
years later Stukeley copied Aubrey’s description
without acknowledgement. ‘Long Stone, at
Broome, near Swindon, Wilts, is a great high stone,
and a little way off many lesser in a line’. At some
time the sarsen was dragged away but in 1894
Passmore himself noted that its hole was still
visible in Longstone Field between Coate Road and
Broome Lane.°

The other boulders were destroyed in the mid-
19th century when the executors of a benefactor’s
will ‘purchased the remains of the Druidical temple
at Broome, and after having them broken up they
were conveyed to Cricklade’ eight miles to the
north-west ‘and they now formed parts of the roads
and footways of the town’.

Nineteenth century indifference to ancient
relics in the neighbourhood was no different in
France. An antiquarian there came upon a
magnificently capstoned portal-dolmen and made
enthusiastic arrangements for members of his
Society to inspect it. To his consternation, when
they arrived, there was nothing to be seen. In
disbelief he asked the proprietor whether they were
at the wrong place. ‘Oh, you mean those big stones?
Oh, when you said there was a large company
coming, and I thought you would have more room
to circulate, so I had them broken up and hauled
away to mend the road.’ Incredible or not the report
is ‘absolument vraie quoique invraisemblable!’.
- Courrier de ’Europe, Septembre 27, 1884.°

And not only in England and France. In
August, 1987, during intensive fieldwork in south-
west Ireland, the writer was advised to go the
attractively-ditched recumbent stone circle of
Glantane NE near Millstreet. Behind the drab
house was a green wilderness, garden overgrown,
long grass, weeds, a shadow of trees green with

moss:

Annihilating all that’s made
To a green thought in a green shade.
Andrew Marvell, Thoughts in a Garden, stanza 6

Like that green thought the stone circle had
also been annihilated, its ditch filled, its pudgy
recumbent, two tall portals, eight chunky circle-
stones, a pair of outliers all dragged from the
ground and carted away to add no more than a
square metre or two to the cultivated fields.’ The
fate of Broome was not unique.

Even today destruction continues, often
through ignorance, sometimes through necessity,
occasionally because of deliberate vandalism, and it
is fortunate that fieldworkers like Arthur Passmore
recorded monuments that otherwise would have
vanished leaving no word of their existence.

He was a man of considerable prejudices,
finding fools insufferable. The writer owns his copy
of Alfred Watkins’ Early British Trackways, Moats,
Camps, and Sites of 1922. Passmore thought little of
it. On the title-page he pencilled ‘ROT’ and stuck
in a typed comment, ‘How any man at any time can
have made such a collection of damned nonsense I
cannot imagine’. Inside the front cover is a further
scornful criticism, ‘Useful for illustrations only’

Early British
Trackways, Moats,
Mounds, Camps,
and Sites.

A Lecture given to the Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club, at Hereford,

September, 1921, by ALFRED WATKINS, Fellow and Progress Medallist

(for 1910), of the Royal Photographic Soc jety; Past President (1919)

of the Woolhope Club, With lillustrations by the Author, and much
added matter.

have made such a

I cannot

dow sng man at anytime
coilection of

ipagine -

demned nonset

1922:
Herrrorp: THE WATKINS METER Co.
Lonpon : SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & Co., Lrp

Fig. 3 Title-page of Passmore’s copy of Alfred Watkins’ Early
British Trackways...

200 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

and, conclusively, opposite, ‘Pure idiocy’(Fig. 3) Yet
the same intolerant man discovered a forgotten
stone circle.

The writer also possesses Passmore’s copy of the
first editions of Stukeley’s Stonehenge, 1740, and
Abury, 1743, bound together. In that dual volume
Passmore’s bookplate displays a mini-gallery of
urns, a Southern beaker, china, porcelain plates,
and a hand-axe. The majority of the pieces were
presented to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (see
paper by Phillips in this volume).

From 1883 onwards Passmore contributed to
this magazine on a pot-pourri of topics. As early as
1898, WANHM 30, 91, 303, he was proudly
displaying his treasured objects to members: local
antiquities, stone implements, Samian_ ware,
painted Roman plaster, Saxon urns and a
spearhead, a blue glass necklace, amber beads,
pack-horse bells, a man-trap and a Belgic urn.

In WANHM 42 he wrote about Wansdyke and
the controversial ‘stone circle’ — which it is not — at
Langdean Bottom. In WANHM 51, 432, he
discussed a pterodactyl bone; in WANHM S53 long
barrows, round barrows and Roman buildings.
There were idiosyncrasies. In WANHM 44, 1927,
76 the editor noted that in the Wilts Gazette of
October 7, 1926 Passmore argued that at
Stonehenge the Aubrey Holes, the stone circle and
trilithons ‘were really intended to contain wooden
posts to support a roof’.

The contributions continued: WANHM 46
about Luckington, Roman coins, and a Saxon mint.
WANHM 47, 493 reported that he took a plaster
model to Wayland’s Smithy for Society members to
see at a visit in August, 1936. In WANHM 50, 1944,
292, he wrote about a human skull filled with lead
in Stratton St. Margaret church dug up ‘years ago’.
In WANAM S51, 1947, 118, the topic was the slitting
of cows’ ears; WANHM 52, 394, a Roman discus;
and, finally in WANHM 53, 1950, 259, the spurious
relics of witches found in Wiltshire. It was his final
contribution. In WANHM 54, 1952, 464 there was a
rather terse announcement that he had resigned
from the Society. The chairman ‘wanted to mention
the severing of Mr. Passmore’s long association
with the Society. How much Wiltshire archaeology
owed to his labours only those could appreciate who
turned to the volumes of the Magazine and read his
communications over nearly fifty years’. Six years
later he died.*

By a megalithic coincidence, of all these notes
and articles his very first contribution had been the
note in WANHM 27, 1893, about the ‘hitherto

undescribed stone circle’ at Coate. In the short
paper that followed in WANHM 27, 1894, 171-4, he
reported the discovery of the tumbled ring at Day
House Farm NE and included a plan of eight half-
buried stones forming two-thirds of a circle that
had been disturbed and damaged by the erection of
a rick- and cow-yards to its west.

Some quarter of a mile to the south-west near
Coate Reservoir were three more large tumbled
sarsens, the southern arc of a second ring, Day
House Farm SW. Alongside the road passing Day
House Farm was a line of five widely separated
stones that Passmore suggested could have been an
‘avenue’ approaching the first circle. He ended by
mentioning the erstwhile circle at Broome and a
possible megalithic ring at Hodson just over a mile
SSW of Day House Farm. It also had a ‘stone row’
near it.

It was a scanty report but until today that was
almost all that was known about these forgotten
sites. It is a considerable benefit to prehistoric
studies not only in Wiltshire but to stone circle
research generally that the purchase of Passmore’s
Notebooks allows those data to be considerably
augmented.

NOTE. In the quoted passages from those
Notebooks that follow numbers in square brackets [ ]
either refer to his pages, e.g. [p.14] or Passmore’s
own insertions in the books. Any remark in round
brackets ( ) is an explanatory interpolation by the
writer. To make the descriptions of the various sites
easier to follow they have been arranged in
alphabetical order: Coate Reservoir; Day House
Farm NE; Day House Farm SW; Fir Clump;
Hodson; and Swindon Old Church.

STONE CIRCLE EXTRACTS
FROM THE NOTEBOOKS
OF A. D. PASSMORE

Coate Reservoir

SU 17. 82. Passmore, Notebook 1, [p.29b]. At the
end of Coate Reservoir there are [what to] a lot of
sarsens of large size and from their positions I think
they are the remains of a double circle, one within
the other like the one at Winterbourne [They seem
to] There is also a double line leading up to them
about 400 yards long. All these stones are in the
[p.30] bed of the reservoir under high water mark
and when the Reservoir [was dug] they were [rolled
from their proper] [positions but] probably moved
a bit out of their original position.

A. D. PASSMORE AND THE STONE CIRCLES OF NORTH WILTSHIRE 201

(Note. This is followed by descriptions of the
Day House circles in Coate hamlet between the
escarpment of the downs and the isolated Swindon
hill. The village lies by a little stream 2.5 miles
south-east of Swindon town centre. The wreckage
of Day House Lane NE ring can still be seen. It was
first noticed by Richard Jefferies who was born at
Coate Farm in 1848. A quarter of a century after
Jefferies, Passmore described the circle and its
partner in considerable detail).

Day House Farm NW and SE.

[p.20] ‘Discovery of stone circles at Coate’, by A. D.
Passmore. These circles which are situated at Day
House Farm about 4 of a mile from the village of
Coate are of sarsen stone and not one [is] now
standing all having tumbled down and [scarcely
noticeable to any but] gradually worked their way
underground until only the tops are visible. at first
they appear very small but on closer investigation I
found them to range in size from 6 ft to 12 ft (1.8m,
3.7m) long and about the same width. I first noticed
these stones in last January (1893) and since then I
have made many fresh discoveries namely another
circle to the S.W. of the Day House circle [see Day
House SW][and also] the [p.2la] remains of a [a
not] double circle and/at the end of the reservoir
about 2 a mile [distant] west [see Coate Reservoir]

re
¥

Bieeccesoce

wee erece

oor eccreeces eco ee
I Se

.
Sy Seer ore

Seale. Fec® {06
see

Fig. 4 Plan. Day House Lane circle NE. Passmore,
WANHM 27, 1894, 171.

and a line of three stones [pointing straight] almost
Y4 mile of 2nd circle. These stone(s) point straight at
Hodson about 1 % away and on going to [?] place
where I expected them to my surprise and
gratification I found the remains of another circle
and on going to the other side of it I [found] saw a
line of stones going away from it and this time
pointing straight to Coate. Owing to want of time I
must leave Hodson circle till the next number of the
magazine [where I hope to have] (see Hodson
circle).

Notebook 1 [p.8] About 6 months ago whilst
walking home from Chiseldon to Swindon through
Day House Farm I was struck by the remarkable
position of certain [stones] sarsen stones which
were lying in the field in front of the farm. [I
continued my walk ] [mentally resolving to again
visit] [this circle].

[About two months after made] [I thoroughly
examined it and] of which I give a scale plan 32 feet
to the sq inch the stones [a] in the circle are 9 in
number and in [the] line leading up it there are
[p.9] 5 stones. (Sixty years later Alexander Thom
planned the stones more accurately but when
redrawing his field-notes misplaced north at the
east. Figs. 4,5). The circle or rather oval appears to
have originally consisted of 30 stones which was the
number of days in the lunar month and a favourite
cycle with the Druids; the diameters are 220 ft from
to and 170 ft (67m, 51.8m) from to . The stones are
themselves are of small size ranging from 5 ft long
to 10 ft long (1.5m, 3.1m). None of them now
remain upright. One part of the oval is
unfortunately encroached upon by a rick yd and
cow sheds and I hope to find another stone when

Ss/d
N DAYHOUSE LANE sm Swoon
Su 182824
, tjmee eee se
i}
0 1
\
‘ |
\ /
h
\ fs
\ i
O a a
ox

Fig. 5 Plan. Day House Lane circle NE. Thom, Thom &
Burl, 1980, 134, S5/6.

202 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

the ricks are removed, in the walls of the shed
[there] and scattered about the field there are large
pieces of sarsen which would account for the few
stones that [p.10] [the stones were] some of the
stones were broken up. I have proved by digging
into the hollow between stones marked 8 and 9 and
there discovering a[nd] quantity of ashes probably
straw and some chips of burnt sarsen.

The line of stones which leads up to the circle
consists of 5 stones none now standing upright.
They are about the same size as the others 1.e. about
5 or 7 feet long (1.8m, 2.1m). I cannot find traces of
any stones within 400 ft (122m) of the circle but the
wall of the cowsheds covers most of this distance
and would probably account [for them] their
absense at the above distance [there] from the circle
there is a stone and at the distance of 6? 5? ft. (65
feet, 20m) there is another and at a like distance 1
more. [p.11] [at a dis[tance] 191ft (S8m) from this
there is a stone which would [be] leave room for two
stones in between and about the same distances that
is 65 ft (20m) [which] and [280] ft (20m, 85m) from
this [last] stone there is one more This being the
last stone that I can trace, it will be noticed in the
plan that the road makes a bend between these two
end stones of which I shall say more farther on.

Some archaeologists (repeated on pages 24, 25)
whom I have taken over the ground deny that the
line of stones has any connection with the circle and
that they were drawn out of the way when the road
was made but I ask why should the stones be equal
distances from each other and why should they
cross the road [between] the last stones where it
curves [an] on its way to Coate while the stones
[continue] [p12a] are in a straight line. I think also
that these stones are two (sic) large to have been
moved for the purpose by modern workmen most of
the[m] stones weighing between 3-4 and 5 tons.
This would have taken [almost] at least 20 men to
lift [which] and all this labour would not have taken
place in recent times. These stones also could not
have been [put? like] natural because in a district
where stones are comparatively scarce it is a rare
thing to find more than one and in a straight line.

The circle appears to have originally consisted
of 30 stones [p.22] the same number as the inner
circles at Avebury. This number [of] was the
number of years counted by the Druids for a
generation and was a favourite cycle of theirs. The
lunar month also anciently consisted of 30 days. It
is not quite a circle [be] there being a considerable
difference between the diameters from E to W and
N to S. The oval [in] on the W side is unfortunately

encroached upon by [a] cowshed and a rick yard
and in this large space there is only one stone left
that being mutilated. The others were probably
buried or smashed up to build the walls around.
Scattered about the sheds are a [good] few pieces of
sarsen which [p.23] would account for [so] such a
small number remaining. That some of the stones
were broken up I have proved by digging into the
hollow between the 9th and 10th stone and I there
found some black ashes and a piece of burnt sarsen.

By the side of the road which passes through the
circle there are five stones which from their present
position I think may have formed part of an avenue
leading up to the circle from the north none of these
now remain upright. They are about the same size
as those in the circle i.e. about 5 to seven feet (1.5m,
2.1m) long.

On turning round the road to Day House Farm
in the left hand side [there] between the third and
fourth [stone] there is a stone [no. 4] 5 ft long [at] a
distance of 400 feet (122m) there is another 6 ft
(1.8m) long in the side of a ditch. 191 ft (58m) from
this is a stone and 65 ft (20m) further on there is one
and at a like distance there is another. This one
[number 5 on plan] is the last I can [trace] find near
the circle*. It will be observed from the plan that
the line if continued would pass over stone 14 or
just to the E of stone 1 in the second circle.

The [stone] first stone of the circle number [6] is
within 3 yards of the shed wall and has fortunately
not been noticed by the builders. of the [sto] walls
[acro] The next three stones 7, 8 and 9 are not
broken [p.26a] [and] the distance between stones 8
and 9 I take to have been the original distance apart,
between stones 9 and 10 there is a hollow from
which I obtained a piece of burnt sarsen and ashes
probably show between stones 11 and 12 there is a
wide gap which after hours of search with a bar I
have failed to fill up. Stone 14 is the only one I can
find in this rick yard but in the ditch outside it
There are some large pieces which have been
broken up and thrown in. We now pass on to the
second circle. (see Day House Lane SW).

[15] (repeated in different words on p.28) I
think it rather remarkable that these circles have
never been mentioned before. Stukeley and Britton
mention the stones at Broome Manor 2 miles
distant but not Coate [Sir R. C. Hoare must have
passed] [along the road also] Hoare doesnt mention
it, neither does Richard Jefferies who must have
passed [seen] it every day. [30b] [Near the] [It is]
Richard Jefferies also seems to have overlooked the
circles [as] he lived [within] very close and

A. D. PASSMORE AND THE STONE CIRCLES OF NORTH WILTSHIRE 203

was married from Day House Farm before which
the circle stands.

Passmore was unaware that Jefferies had
already described the circle in one of a series of
articles for the Wiltshire Herald in 1867-8. Jefferies
wrote:

The road from Coate makes a wide semi-circle
round to Chisledon. Day-house Lane cuts off the
angle, and was formerly much used, until the road
was widened and macadamised. There may be seen
on the left side of Day-house Lane, exactly opposite
the entrance to a pen on Day-house Farm, five
Sarsden stones, much sunk in the ground, but
forming a semi-circle of which the lane is the base-
line or tangent. There was a sixth upon the edge of
the lane, but it was blown up and removed, in order
to make the road more serviceable, a few years ago.
Whether this was or was not one of those circles
known as Druidical, cannot now be determined, but
it wears that appearance. It would seem that the
modern lane had cut right through the circle,
destroying all vestige of one half of it. In the next
field, known as the Plain, lies, near the footpath
across the fields to Chisledon, another Sarsden of
enormous size, with two smaller satellites of the
same stone close by. If the semi-circle just spoken of
was a work of the Druids, or of the description
known as Druidical, which some think a very
different thing, it may be just possible that these
detached stones in the Plain had some connection
with it’.’

In the Notebook he continued his account.
[p.15] In conclusion (repeated on page 13) I wish to
express my best thanks to Mr. Handy [the] upon
whose farm the stones are and for the kind manner
in which he gave me permission to go over his land
and do what excavation I thought necessary. If any
one who reads may have any doubt of the accuracy
of the above statements [I] and think I may have
drawn from my [p.16] Imagination I shall be
pleased to take them over the ground and convince
them of the truth of what I have said.

Near this circle on the bank of the Reservoir I
have picked up flint implements of a shape very
_ often found in the Swiss lacustine dwellings there
[are also] nearly 2 ft (60cm) under surface [unseen]
among fossils which would assign them to a very
early palaeolithic age and also other implements of
a later period near the same spot.

[p.17b] The 2 stones behind the shed [Coate]
have evidently been moved to their present position
[level with the shed wali lately] when the shed was

built and this shed being exactly between the two
circles I think that they are the remains of an
avenue between (pages 18, 19, blank)

{p.22] Near this circle I found a piece of red
pottery of very rude make [being] , the clay mixed
with small flints and I [should] is [put it] early
British. I have also found implements near here one
being [the same] of a type very often found in the
Swiss Lakes.

The word Coate is a Celtic Word derived from
[the] a form of old Welsh coed, wood, or the Cornish
‘Coit’.

October Ist A. Passmore
The line of stones leading from the Coate circle if
continued would lead to water this is the case at
Avebury in the Beckhampton which I firmly
believe in. At Stanton Drew two of the circles have
short avenues which go from them towards the
river which flows close by. At Mount Murray in the
I. of Man there is a small circle [which] with a small
[p.33] curved avenue. (There is no stone circle at
Mount Murray. The site at SC 325 766 3.5 miles
west of Douglas is the Glendarragh ‘circle’ at
Braaid, Kirk Marown, a mixture of a round ‘Celtic’
house and, just to the north, the ‘avenue’, the
remains of a Norse ‘boat-shaped house of about
1000 AD’. A.B.)

Mr. A. L. Lewis in reading a paper before the
Anthropological Institute says that all [sto] nearly
all stone circles have a reference to the NE either a
hill top, [or] a large outlying stone or another
circle.'” Out of 21 circles visited by him he says 18
had a special reference to the N.E. the next most
distinguished marker is the S. E. [nine cases] the
circle at Coate [Coate at Co] adds another as it has a
circle at the S. E.

In a Saxon Charter the ten stones are mentioned
as a boundary of the parish of Chiseldon. (page 34
blank).

[p.35] In the N. W. sky of the evening there are
the following stars which by a singular coincidence
are nearly in the same positions as the stones at
Coate [plan] and to the S. E. of these there are three
more which are exactly like the 3 stones in the [scn]
circle at Coate the only difference being that [the
apex of] star number | is the wrong side of the other
two.

Passmore, Notebook 2, [p.30]. July 29, 1895.
The dry weather [of] in June of this year scorched
up the grass in several places around the stone circle
at Coate leaving brown patches thinking that stones
might be underneath I examined the ground with a
bar and was rewarded by finding 5 new stones

204 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

[some of larger] one of larger size than any I had
previously examined the first stone no X belongs to
the avenue or line of stones is 170 ft (52m) distant
from stone no 2 and 20 ft (6.1m) from the road. No
11 which is 8 ft long is 110 ft (2.4m, 33.5m) from the
[circle] stone no 2 and 60 ft from stone 10 [it will be
noticed from the plan that the probable original
distance between the stones in the line was 65 ft]
(19.8m).

Day House Lane SE
c.SU 182 823. [p.26a] In the next field about a
quarter of a mile from the above I found the
remains of another. (Fig. 6) [p.14a] The line of
stones which leads up to the first circle (Day House
NE) which seems to be lost [and] stone number 1
may have curved here and gone towards Swindon
and I have traced it [at] with great trouble [to the]
some stones being 100 yards (90m) from others tll
it gets as far as the second park field.

this is only a suggestion very probably correct to
E of Swindon where it seems to end is a row of 16
large sarsens about 2 feet (60cm) apart and a 4 of a
mile to the N of this [line] row of stones [I ha]
behind Swindon church (new) discovered the
remains of another circle or two of stones of which I
give a plan (see: Swindon Old Church).

w i

&@D
@

ULit tf f 9 py
Scale. Feet. 100,

Fig. 6 Plan. Day House Lane part-circle SW. Passmore,
WANHM 27, 1894, 172.

Notebook 1. [p.12b]. A smaller one (Day House
Farm SW) with only three stones remaining (of
which I give a plan) the stone marked 1 is of greater
size and I think I am right in stating that its the
largest [within 3 miles] in the district. The stone
marked 2 is of small size [have been] bearing marks
of having been mutilated. The stone number | (no.
3?) has also been knocked about. They are equal
distances [p.13] apart [i. e.] 59 feet (18m). Between
the two circles (Day House Lane NE and SW)
[there is] in a straight line there is a stable and by

the side of this there are 3 large stones which have
evidently been placed against the wall [at some]
within the century [?] and the inside of the stable is
paved mostly with sarsen I think that these circles
may once have been connected by a line of stones.

To the west of the second circle (SW) there are 3
stones in a straight line pointing straight for
Burderop 1% miles distant where on top of ladder
hill there are to (sic but?) stones of large size
standing upright about 20 yards (18m) apart and in
a straight line with the stones at Coate.

[p.26b] between the two circles there [are] is a
place 12 feet square (3.7m) paved with sarsens. This
may have been part of the [sheds] cow sheds which
are within 6 feet At the back [p.27] of this shed
there are 2 stones which have evidently been moved
to their present position lately and were drawn from
out of this shed when it was built and placed against
the wall, as this building is in a straight line
between the two circles. I think that these are the
remains of a connecting line. The first stone in the
second circle is of very large size. The other two
have been mutilated and that they were of very
large size is proved by the large hole which remains.
There are equal distances apart 59 ft (18m) and this
circle must have been [and... have been] [much
smaller circle] than the first, to the west of this
second circle there are three stones pointing
straight from Hodson of which I have already
spoken. It is rather a remarkable fact that these
circles have escaped observation on the part of
Archaeologists. Neither Stukeley, Aubrey Hoare or
Britton mention it although the [1st] former and Sir
R. Hoare must have passed very close to it. Stukeley
mentions the stones which were at Broome, now
unfortunately in Cricklade streets and in a note
book of his there is the following entry
“TLongstones* at Broome, near Swindon, Wilts is a
great high stone, and a little way of many lesser ones
in a row [* The field in which they stood still
retains the name Longstones Meadow. ]

[p.29a] These stones [being] may have been
connected with [a line of] [stones] a circle which
was [smashed] broken up before Stukeley’s time
and being so close to Coate I think this confirms my
opinion about the line at [Coate] Day House Farm
being connected with the circle.

Fir Clump, Burderop Wood

SU 161 814. Notebook. [p.17a]. Local tradition says
that there [is] [a] was a stone circle of large size near
the railway bridge outside Swindon Old Town
station and the old Marlboro road leading to

A. D. PASSMORE AND THE STONE CIRCLES OF NORTH WILTSHIRE 205

Ladder Hill (SU 161 804) but of the size and
number of stones I cannot gain any information as
they were broken up about 30 years ago. There are a
lot of small pieces of sarsen on the spot where it is
said to have been.

(Passmore failed to find the actual location of
the ring where there was to be a megalithic tragedy.
In 1965, a mile south of Broome, Richard Reiss
noticed a much disturbed concentric ring of coarse
sarsens, the inner, flattened at the north, 86.5 x
73.7m, the fragmentary but enormous outer about
107m across. About 125m to the west was a single
line of stones, 102m long, lying NNW-SSE. In 1969
the stones were casually removed during the
construction of the M4 motorway.!!).

Hodson

c.SU 17. 80. [p.21b] This circle must wait till the
next number of the / Magazine [when I hope to
have] [p.38] This circle is situated in the village of
Hodson about 3 miles from Swindon and 1 mile
from Chiseldon station.

It is like the Coate circles encroached upon by
barns and other buildings, the road also passes
through it. the stones are about the same size as
those at Coate none are now standing. 8 stones are
in position and inside these there are traces of a
second circle of which I can only find 3 stones and
these being out of position I think they [are the
remains of] came there by accident or probably for
some agricultural purpose leading up to this circle
there are 4 distinct lines of stones which [go in]
leave the circles in the [p.39] direction of Coate and
I think that this line if stones was continued on to
Coate and joined the line of stones there [the three
by second circle].

This circle is about the same size as the one at
Coate being 250 ft (76m) in diameter but is
unfortunately right in the midst of sheds hedges
road and lanes which make it very difficult to find.

Swindon Old Church
SU 15. 84.[p.14b] behind Swindon Church [new] I
have discovered the remains of another circle of two
of stones of which I give a plan (Fig. 7) [p.54].
(The Old Church, Holy Rood, Swindon, was a
ruin by 1852, the chancel being refurbished as a
chapel in 1964. The new church, Christ Church,
Cricklade Street, was designed by Sir George
Gilbert Scott in 1851).”
[p.55] Notes on Swindon Circle. In the big field
behind the Church there are a lot of sarsen stones
which form a half circle [I am going over the

Big field
° °
e °
52 paces
°
e
< -
° ° aan fi
62 paces yr
af Eo]
re é
° pond _
6 paces

°
i Se Ry a ole ee, Es ol A oon ee Sn Mi i

wire fence
@

So i ll inal See: in ie Ee is Se
Fi wire fence

wire fence
i i A i in SO IR I Sa SOR ac OO SOO TT

Road

large stone out in this field

Fig. 7 Plan. Swindon stone circle and row. Passmore,
Notebook 1, 54.

ground with a bar] on Jan 18 mr Leslie went out in
the field below the big field and discovered several
more stones extending in all about % a mile [nearly]
they are sarsen stones, some big about 5 to 6 feet
(1.5m, 1.8m) average size, some nearly buried [this
stone lin] this stone line may have been a sacred
road leading to some worship place.

(In the Notebook all the following six lines have
been crossed out). probably the circle in big field
the northern end of this [circle] line points in the
direction of Stratton where near [Hodn] Notts
boundary in a field on right hand side of road there
are [p.56] large stones. Keeping the same N+S
direction, this line also points straight for Avebury.
Mr Haliday says that these stones were broken up to
form part of the wall and that they were in the form
of a circle 18 years ago. (Pages 57 — 70 blank).

The Purpose of Stone Circles

{p.36] The question will probably be asked what
where these stone circles & their uses? An answer to
this question is very difficult to give as the
archaeologists are divided in their opinions
respecting them but the most widely accept theory
is that they were connected with the worship of the
Sun & Moon [is] this is almost certain as most
circles have an [reference?] outlying stone or some
other distinguishing object on the Eastern side the

206 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

famous “Friar’s Heel” at Stonehenge may be taken
as an example.

There are several other theories which have at
different times been accepted as correct namely the
Water Worship [p.37] Theory and Stukeley’s Snake
Worship The former’s opinion is upheld by the
following facts. That in some circles a line of stones
is found leading from the circle to the nearest river,
at Stanton Drew this is the case in 2 instances and at
Coate the line by the road would if continued run to
water in at [?] direction. Whether this had any
connection with the worship carried on in he main
temple is doubtful.

In conclusion there is one fact to be mentioned
against the temple theory & that is if all the
inhabitants of the districts where these circles are
why should they not be all together instead of being
scattered about in circles very close to one another.

Letter to C. H. Goddard Esq 1/1/14.

[p.40] (In 1914 the Rev. E. H. Goddard was the
Editor of the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural
History Magazine. He lived at Clyffe Vicarage,
Swindon).

Dear Sir,

I write to tell you of aremarkable coincidence in
connection with the stone circle at Coate. You will
remember that the stones | to 6 in the [large] first
circle are of large size and the other three are very
small and one could almost [be] say that they were
not really a part of the circle, if these six stones are
left and the three small ones struck out, and these
being put on paper together with the 3 stones of the
second circle and also the three stones which are in
a line to the west of the second circle. Having placed
these in their proper positions on the first clear
night go out and look in the Northern sky and just
under the north star [p.41] you will observe half a
circle of 6 stones exactly like those on your plan to
the right of these [that is to the west] there are three
stones exactly like the second circle the only
difference being [in] that they are on a rather large
scale and that the middle star is on the wrong side
of the other two. On the right of these again judging
the distance by your plan you will see three stars in
a line exactly like the three in the line mentioned
above after you have seen these stars you will be
[struck by the] surprised at the coincidence. I don’t
wish to say that this is anything more than a very
remarkable coincidence but if as some authorities
on stone circles say that they are connected with the
Worship of the Sun, Moon, & [p.42] Stars one
would be justified in saying that this is something

more than a mere accident{[al].

If you cannot find out these stars please
write to me and I will point them to you myself if
possible. (Pages 43 to 55 blank)

This marked the end of Passmore’s notes on
stone circles.

The stone circles described by Passmore create
more questions than answers. Six of them form a
clumsy rhomboid about a mile wide and a mile and
a half northwards from Fir Clump up the south-
eastern outskirts of Swindon. Had they been
contemporaries each would have had a little
territory of no more than 160 acres (65ha). This is
so limited that a chronological sequence is more
likely.

Why they were erected in such a limited area is
predictable. As always, prehistoric people used
whatever local material there was and around Coate
sarsens littered the ground. ‘Broome Manor must
have boasted many 1000s... At Coate there are
many. Here a Bronze Age circle is found of them...
Ladder Hill... can show many examples’. These
were the ancient Lower Greensand sarsens unlike
the later Bagshot blocks around Avebury.'’* That
stone circles should be put up in such a megalithic
abundance is understandable. And that there
should be concentric rings amongst them is not
unexpected.

Two were already known at Winterbourne
Bassett and the Sanctuary. Both of them were far
above average size for stone circles in Britain. The
surprise is that Fir Clump, a mere three miles north
of Winterbourne Bassett, was enormous, over seven
times the area of the Sanctuary and nearly twelve
times as big as Winterbourne Bassett. It was almost
as big as the southern circle inside Avebury and
must have been an important meeting-place like a
‘tribal’ lodge for an extensive region.

It is a criticism of our times that this
irreplaceable relic of antiquity, perhaps the ritual
centre of prehistoric generations, could be
destroyed with the indifference of ignorance to
make room for that modern passage of convenience,
a motorway from London to Bristol.

Its associated concentrics may also have been
large. The dimensions of Coate Reservoir are
unknown but the Hodson ring was spacious if
Passmore’s recorded diameter of 76m is correct.
Capable of accommodating a congregation of
hundreds, Fir Clump even more, surely these
monsters could only have been contemporaries if
used for ceremonies at seasonal times of the year as

A. D. PASSMORE AND THE STONE CIRCLES OF NORTH WILTSHIRE 207

the cromlechs at Carnac in Brittany were.'*
Despite this modern concentration in
north Wiltshire concentric circles were uncommon
in Britain and Ireland, only about thirty previously
being known, widely spread from Cnoc Fillibhir on
Lewis in the Outer Hebrides down to the outer
sarsen ring and inner bluestone circle at
Stonehenge five hundred miles to the south. There
are two distinct regions, a concentration around the
coasts of the Irish Sea and a scatter in Wessex.
Around the North Channel the ovals are
unimpressive, their outer ring enclosing a much
smaller containing a central cairn, a feature which
may reveal their sepulchral nature. The Wessex
concentrics are different. Their paired rings are
closely-set and arguably they were open-air
facsimiles of a roofed, wooden prototype. In such an
interpretation the concentrics represented the outer
wall-posts and inner uprights of a covered building
that had been a place of assembly or maybe a
mortuary house as the Sanctuary may have been."

That Passmore was able to claim several
concentrics in northern Wiltshire is helpful but not
perplexing. They were part of an established
tradition. So was his long double line at Coate
Reservoir. Such avenues in Wessex have been
known for centuries: at Stonehenge; at Stanton
Drew in Somerset; at Avebury and the Sanctuary.
Probably added to an existing ring they are
comfortably explained as processional approaches
to the circle.

To the contrary, in Wiltshire single lines were
almost unknown. Because John Aubrey’s
Monumenta Britannica remained unpublished until
1980 there was no early record of such solitary rows.
Yet in south-west England they were abundant,
some in Cornwall and on Exmoor, plentiful on
Dartmoor, non-existent in Wessex.!°

According to Passmore they did _ exist,
sometimes leading in the direction of another ring:
at Day House Farm NE ‘from the circle there is a
stone... and at 65 ft. there is another and a like
distance more...; at Day House Farm SW, ‘a line of
three stones...’; at Fir Clump, ‘to the west was a
single line of stones’; at Hodson, ‘ 4 distinct lines of

~ stones’; and at Swindon Old Church ‘several more

stones extending in all about 2 a mile’. There was
another at Broome as John Aubrey wrote. ‘In the
ground below (the Longstone’ are many thus
00000000000000 in a right line’.!”

Such a sudden emergence of single lines makes
it possible that these were the result of influences,
even immigrations, from the south-west perhaps

quite late in the history of stone circles, rows of
standing stones added to existing rings just as
avenues had been. There is possible confirmation
in the misinterpreted setting at Langdean Bottom
three miles south of Avebury. It is a confusion of
sarsen.

Passmore described it: ‘An unrecorded stone
circle’ and ‘a curious collection of stones quite
unlike anything in the county... an irregular north
and south line of stones, the first three of which [to
the north] are upright and in their original
position’. ‘A short distance east of this line stands a
stone circle’ with two big stones forming an
entrance slightly north of west. The ring ‘stands on
slightly raised ground’.!®

Despite his interpretation of the site as a stone
circle there has been a conflict of opinions
including the negative one that Langdean, like
Coate and others, was unrewarding to visit because
‘few traces of these remain’. Happily, those
‘remains’ do survive. Other suggestions were more
positive but contradictory. Langdean was either a
stone circle or a round barrow or a dwelling.

Nikolaus Pevsner, uninhibited by any
understanding of prehistory, wrote of. ‘a small
circle of undressed sarsen 33 ft (10m) in diameter’.
To Stuart Piggott the site ‘appears to be the
retaining sarsen kerb of a round barrow 30 ft.
across’. Terence Meaden thought that the stones
might be ‘a foundation ring for supporting the floor
of a hut’. Neil Mortimer who re-examined the area
inclined to the view that Langdean Bottom might
be an unusual type of stone circle.

The conclusions were inconclusive. The
surveyors of the National Monuments Record
shrugged. To them the site ‘hardly conforms to a
prehistoric hut or a stone circle, but proof one way
or another is unfortunately lacking’.””

They were over-pessimistic and seemingly did
not consider that a nearby feature provided a
possible solution to the mystery. Pevsner
mentioned it: ‘E of the circle is a short avenue of
standing stones’. So did that doyen of fieldwork
studies, Leslie Grinsell. Very close to the ‘stone
circle’ he recorded ‘2 parallel rows of upright
sarsens 10-13 yds. apart (9-12m) and 45 yds. long
(41m), running roughly W-E., with indications of
about 3 transverse rows’. Of the ‘stone circle’ he
thought that ‘the valley situation perhaps favours
the view that it might be a circular house site’.”

It supports the idea of Langdean Bottom as a
form of Dartmoor hut-circle because the suggestion
is strengthened by its adjacent double row so

208 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

typical of Dartmoor. Many such rows lie isolated on
the moor except for nearby hut-circles. On
Dartmoor and Exmoor, hardly a hundred miles
from the Marlborough Downs, there are over fifty
of these independent settings.”!

There is a paradox. People on the sarsen-
covered Marlborough Downs did not use stone for
the foundation-walls of their dwellings and there
are no recorded hut-circles which may be because
they are deeply buried under today’s towns and
villages. On the uninhabited uplands of Dartmoor
there are many more than a thousand.

Langdean Bottom, far too small to be a stone
circle and quite unlike any stone-surrounded
round barrow in Wessex, may be such a hut-circle
with tall, wide slabs for its walls, a conspicuous
entrance and, tellingly for a Dartmoor connection,
a double row typical of that region close to it. Both
the style of house and the lines of stones are
untypical of Wiltshire but almost identical to the
settings and hut-circles on Dartmoor. It is
revealing. Like the un-Wessex-like single rows in
the neighbourhood of Swindon the sarsen settings
at Langdean Bottom may be one more instance of
intrusive fashions reaching Wessex, perhaps in the
Middle Bronze Age when a deteriorating climate
was already causing people to abandon the
inhospitable uplands.”

It must be conjectural but the alternatives are
unconvincing. The ‘stone circle’ is not only
claustrophobic but it is on a low mound unlike any
other Wiltshire ring. The setting differs entirely
from other round barrows in the county. Of
necessity, queries remain. Grinsell wavered about
the rows of sarsens, ‘Query whether the site (was) a
row of 2 or 3 prehistoric houses’. Mortimer was less
doubtful. “The enclosure is definitely a rectangle
with an additional row of sarsens running parallel
to its northern side’.”*

Such assessments take no account of later
interference such as the medieval labour-saving
expedient of integrating rows of standing stones
into the walls of cattle- or sheep-pens. Such
vandalism was commonplace. The Rollright Stones
circle in Oxfordshire became a Roman _ cock-
fighting arena. Castilly henge in Cornwall was
transformed into a play-house in the Middle Ages.
The high banks of the Maumbury Rings henge at
Dorchester were adapted for a Civil War gun-
battery. So was the Castilly erstwhile theatre.”
There are many similar sacrileges.

At Langdean Bottom the individual similarities
of a sarsen ring and stone rows to monuments on

Dartmoor could be coincidental. What makes the
distant origin a likelihood is the closeness of the
ring and the rows, oddities a few steps from each
other in a countryside of established local forms.
That, in turn, offers the probability that the double
and single rows a few miles to the north also were
related to Dartmoor customs.

If ideas, even human immigration, from that
bleak upland to the more sheltered countryside of
northern Wiltshire did occur then it is from the
detailed notes of A. D. Passmore that the first clues
have emerged, providing a glimmer of light on
prehistory like the flickering of a birthday cake
candle in the darkness of the past.

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Anne Foster and Val Knowles for
their respective hand-written and _ typed
transcriptions of the notebooks; to Lorna Haycock,
Sandell Librarian of the Wiltshire Archaeological
& Natural History Society, for information about
Richard Jefferies and the Day House Farm circle; to
R. H. Reiss and the National Monuments Record,
Swindon, for information about Fir Clump; and to
the National Monuments Record for additional
information about the Day House Farm stone
circles; Hilary Schrafft for searching for Passmore’s
obituary in the Wiltshire Gazette & Herald of 1958;
and to Neil Mortimer who led me to the
controversial sites at Langdean Bottom.

Notes

' Passmore, A. D. 1893-4, WANHM 27, 104, 171-4.

? Stukeley, 1743, 45.

> Hoare, 1819, 94-5; Duke, 1846, 6, 80-2; Lukis,
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London, (III),
1883, 347; Smith, A. C., 1885, 76-8; Thom, Thom &
Burl, 1980, S5/5, 132-3.

+ Andrew David et al, 202. Stukeley sketch of

Winterbourne Bassett: Bodleian Library, Oxford,

Gough Maps 231, fol. 216.

Broome circle: Aubrey, 1980, 106-107. Passmore and

the Long Stone: WANHM 44, 1929, 84-5.

® Destruction of the Broome circle and Cricklade:

WANHM 23, 1887, 115-16. French portal-dolmen:

ibid, 156-7.

Glantane recumbent stone circle: O’Nuallain, 1984,

12, no. 3, plan, 52; Burl, 1995, 220.

8 Passmore’s death: There were obituaries in
WANHM 57, 1959, 255-6, and, reputedly, in the
Wiltshire Gazette € Herald of March 13, 1958,
although there is no report in that or adjacent issues.

° Richard Jefferies and Coate: North Wiltshire Herald

A. D. PASSMORE AND THE STONE CIRCLES OF NORTH WILTSHIRE 209

articles, October, 1867 to June, 1868; G. Toplis, (ed)
Fefferies’ Land. A History of Swindon and its Environs,
Simpkin, Marshall, London, 1896, 134-5.

10 A.L. Lewis, 1912.

| Fir Clump stone circle: R. H. Reiss, in litt., 23 January

1996; National Monuments Record, Swindon, in litt.,

13 February, 1996; WANHM 96, 2003, 222.

Swindon old and new churches: Pevsner, 323.

3 J. B. Jones, ‘Wiltshire’s oldest sarsens ‘, WANHM 53,
1950, 131-3.

‘Seasonal gatherings in Brittany: T. Cato Worsfold,
The French Stonehenge, Bemrose, London, 1898, 7, 20,
21-2; Burl, 2000, 341.

Concentric stone circles in Britain and Ireland: Burl,
2000, 316.

7 Single row at Broome: Aubrey, 1980, 107.

'8Langdean Bottom: Passmore, ‘Langdean stone

circle’, WANHM 42, 1924, 364-6. Plan.

Interpretations of Langdean Bottom: almost

destroyed: A. Service & J. Bradbury, The Standing

Stones of Europe, J. M. Dent, 1993, 224; stone circle:

Pevsner, 231; round barrow: Piggott, 1973, 332; stone

circle?: Mortimer, 1997, 24-6; National Monuments

Record, Mortimer, ibid, 26.

20 Double row of stones: Pevsner, 231; L. Grinsell, 1957,
67. Hut-circle: Burl, Prehistoric Avebury, Yale U.P,
2002, 268.

21 Dartmoor double rows: R. H. Worth, Worth’s

Dartmoor, eds. G. M. Spooner & FE. M. Russell, David

& Charles, Newton Abbot, 1967, 99-132; Burl, 1993,

75,78-88, 233-5.

Langdean Bottom and an exodus from Dartmoor:

Burl, 2000, 125; Burl, Prehistoric Avebury, Yale U. P,

2002, 268.

3 Row of houses: Grinsell, 1957, 67. A definite
rectangle: Mortimer, 25-6.

4 Rollright Stones: G. Lambrick, The Rollright Stones,
Oxford, 1983, 46-7; Castilly henge: Charles Thomas,
Cornish Archaeology 3, 1964, 10-12; Maumbury Rings,
H. St. George Gray, ‘Fourth interim report on the
excavations at Maumbury Rings, Dorchester, 1912’,
Proc. Dorset Nat. Hist & Ant. Field Club 34, 15-16;
‘Fifth interim report’, [bid 35, 1914, 4, 13, Plate 2.

Bibliography

-AUBREY, J. 1980, Monumenta Britannica, I. Milborne
Port: Dorset Publishing Co.

BURL, A. 1993, From Carnac to Callanish. The Prehistoric
Stone Rows and Avenues of Britain, Ireland and Brittany.
New Haven & London: Yale University Press

BURL, A. 1995, A Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain,
Treland and Brittany. New Haven & London: Yale
University Press

BURL, A. 2000, The Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and
Brittany. New Haven & London: Yale University Press

DAVID, A., FIELD, D., FASSBINDER, J., LINFORD,
N., PAYNE, A., 2003. ‘A Family Chapel...to an
Archdruid’s Dwelling’: an investigation into the
stone circle at Winterbourne Bassett, Wiltshire.
WAHNM 96, 195-205

DUKE, Rev. E. 1846, The Druidical Temples of the County of
Wilts.... London: Russell Smith

GRINSELL. L. V. 1957, ‘Archaeological Gazetteer’ in. ed.
R. B. Pugh, A History of Wiltshire. The Victoria History
of the Counties of England, I, 1, London: Oxford
University Press, 21-279

HOARE, R. C. 1819, The Ancient History of Wiltshire, II,
London: Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor &
Jones

LEWIS, A. L. 1912. On the relation of stone circles to
outlying stones, or tumuli, or neighbouring hills,
with some information therefrom. Journal of the
Royal Anthropological Institute 12, 176-91

LUKIS, Rev. W. C. 1883. Report on the prehistoric
monuments of Wilts, Somerset and South Wales.
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London 9,
344-55, ‘Winterborne-Bassett’, 347

MEADEN, T. 1999, The Secrets of the Avebury Stones,
London: Souvenir Press

MORTIMER, N. 1997, ‘On Longan dene’, 3rd Stone 26,
1997, 24-6

MURRAY, L. J. 1999, A Zest for life: the Story of Alexander
Keiller. Wootton Bassett: Morven Books

O’NUALLAIN, S. 1984. A survey of stone circles in Cork
and Kerry. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 84, 1,
Dublin: Royal Irish Academy.

PASSMORE, A. D. 1893. Stone circle near Swindon.
WANHM 27, 104

PASSMORE, A. D. 1894. Notes on an undescribed stone
circle at Coate, near Swindon. WANHM 27, 171-4

PASSMORE, A. D. 1923. Langdean stone circle.
WANHM 42, 364-6

PEVSNER, N. 1975, The Buildings of England. Wiltshire,
revised by B. Cherry, London: Penguin

PIGGOTT, S. 1973, ‘The first agricultural communities:
Neolithic period, c.3000-1500 BC, in. ed. E. Crittall,
A History of Wiltshire. The Victoria History of the
Counties of England, I, 2. London: Oxford University
Press, 284-332

SMITH, Rev. A. C. 1885, British and Roman Antiquities of
the North Wiltshire Downs, Devizes: Wiltshire
Archaeological and Natural History Society

STUKELEY, W. 1743, Abury, a Temple of the British
Druids... London: Innys, Manby, Dod & Brindley

THOM, A., A. S. & BURL, A. 1980, Megalithic Rings:
Plans and Data for 229 Monuments in Britain. Oxford:
British Archaeological Reports 81

TOPLIS, G. (ed). 1896, Fefferies’ Land. A History of
Swindon and its Environs. London: Simpkin, Marshall

TREHERNE, J. 1985, The Trap. New York: Beaufort
Books

210 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

Appendix: Corpus of Stone Circles
in the Notebooks of A.D. Passmore

Broome. SU 167 825. Aubrey, I, 106, 107; Long
Stone, Broome., WANHM 11, 1869, 341
(Stukeley); WANHM 23, 1887, 115-16, 156,
157; Passmore, WANHM 27, 1894, 174;
Passmore, Notebook 1, 28. Victoria County
History, Wiltshire, I (1), 1957, 111-12, 332.

Coate Reservoir. SU 17. 82. Passmore, Notebook 1,
29.

Day House Lane, NE. SU 181 824. Richard
Jefferies, North Wiltshire Herald, October, 1867
to June, 1868; G. Toplis, 134-5; Passmore,
WANHM 27, 1894, 171-4, plan 172; Passmore,
Notebook 1, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17b,
205: 21, 22; 23, 24, 25, 26, 31,.32;,.33;, 35a;-40;
Victoria County History -Wiltshire, I, (1), 1957,
111-12; Thom, 1967, 140, S5/6, Circle, stone,
‘part only’; Thom, Thom & Burl, 1980, 134-5,
plan, diameter c. 207’ [63m]. Today only five

stones of the circle survive. The ‘row’ has been
removed: National Monuments Record, in litt.,
15. 8. 03.

Day House Lane SW, SU 181 819. Passmore,
Notebook 1, 21a, 27, 35b; WANHM 27, 1894,
171-4. Since Passmore’s Note the stones have
been blown up: National Monuments Record,
in litt., 15. 8. 2003.

Fir Clump, Burderop Wood. SU 161 814. Passmore,
Notebook 1, 17a; WANHM 27, 1894,174; R. H.
Reiss, in litt., 23. 1. 96; National Monuments
Record, Swindon, zn /itt., 13. 2. 96.

Hodson, c.SU 172 809. Passmore, WANHM 27,
1894, 174; Notebook 1, 21b, 22, 23, 38, 39.

Swindon Old Church. SU 15. 84. Passmore,
Notebook 1, 55, 56.

Winterbourne Bassett: c.SU 093 753. Stukeley,
1743, 45; Hoare, 1821, 94-5; Duke, 80-2; Lukis,
1883, 347; Smith, A. C., 76-8; Thom, 1967, 140,
$5/5, ‘Circle, stone, all fallen’; Thom, Thom &
Burl, 132-3, plan, 156 ft (47.6m); A. David et al,
195-205.

Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History Magazine, vol. 97 (2004), pp. 211-217

Recent work at Barton Grange Farm, Bradford-on-

Avon, Wiltshire, 1998-2003

by Michael Heaton' and William Moffatt’

Excavations in advance of the rebuilding of the West Barn at Barton Grange, Bradford-on-Avon (damaged by fire in
1982), revealed a sequence of archaeolgical layers earlier than the barn’s construction date of 1769, and probably
extending back to a period contemporary with or earlier than the building of the adjacent medieval tithe barn.

INTRODUCTION
The Site

Bradford-on-Avon is situated on a bend of the
(Bristol) River Avon, within the Corallian ridge of
Jurassic limestones at the south-west periphery of
the Cotswold Hills, 6km south-east of Bath, in West
Wiltshire. Barton Grange Farm lies on the south-
west edge of the town, on the Avon floodplain, at
NGR ST 8230 6047, and comprises buildings
grouped around a large open courtyard, with the
Great Tithe Barn defining the southern edge of the
yard, and the House, the north.

The works comprised the rebuilding of the
West Barn; stabilisation of the walls at the north-
east corner of the Stack Yard; excavation of four
new service trenches (A-D) across the ‘Stack yard’
and along the access road; and excavation of
footings for a new boundary wall north of the
Granary. Detailed descriptions of the ‘standing?
components of the site have been included within
reports submitted to English Heritage and the
-County SMR. The following concerns only the
‘below ground’ deposits pertinent to the
archaeology of the West Barn. The extent of
archaeological observations and structures affected
by the works is indicated on Figure 1, and detailed
plans and cross-sections of the West Barn are
presented on Figures 2 and 3.

Archaeological Background

The archaeological background has _ been
summarised by Haslam (1976; 1984). Academic
interest in the farm complex has _ historically
focused on the Great Tithe Barn, with the adjacent
buildings within the group being afforded ‘Listed
Building’ status by virtue of their ‘group value’.
Despite the existence of a 1769 date stone in its east
elevation, the 1974 ‘Listing Schedule’ for the West
Barn describes it as:

Probably Cl4th, or possibly later. Considerably
altered. Single storey. Coursed rubble. Ashlar quoins.
Modern pantile roof. Stone gable-ends with cappings
and saddle-stones. Square-headed opening in east
gable wall with timber lintel. Assortment of windows
on north side. Plain queen-post roof, probably C19th.
Included for group value.

The West Barn attracted academic interest,
ironically, after a fire in 1982 which destroyed the
roof. Base crucks in the long side walls, observed
archaeologically for the first time, indicated that
part of the building was of a potentially earlier date.
Subsequent excavations (Haslam, 1984) identified
masonry outside and inside the West Barn that the
excavator concluded were the footprint — possibly a
cart porch — of an earlier and larger building.
Despite Haslam’s appeals, the building was allowed
to deteriorate. By 1989 Jeremy Lake, in his study of

' ASI, Furlong House, 61 East Street, Warminster, BA12 9BZ ?25 The Hollow, Lower Woodford, Salisbury SP4 6NJ

212 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

Wall (1043)

SUES
yx
,

Drain (1058)

NEN
4,
ee:

a eo “Trench C

West Barn.

See Figure 2

a ~-JrenchA
oy / Paw ae

Wall (1054) and the ‘Dairy’ area. / ;
Details not reported here

Wall (1054)

Ser } ~ oo
Trench D \. i: Drains Trench B

Fig. 1 Extent of Works

historic buildings (1989) was able to describe the
West Barn only as ‘the ruins of another medieval
farm building, probably a byre’.

RESULTS
Stratigraphic Data

Excluding wholly modern concrete surfaces and
associated disturbances, seven stratigraphically dis-
tinct phases of deposit were revealed in the main
excavations and service trenches, with contiguous
deposits extending between them. The stratigraphic
relationships are illustrated on Figure 4.

Phase 1

Brickearth subsoil (1038) was revealed at the base of
most excavations and, in Trench C, was sealed by a
localised remnant of a grey silty loam ‘A’ horizon
topsoil (1037).

Phase 2.
The stratigraphically lowest structural deposits
comprised wall (1043) and wall (0005/1018), though

no direct stratigraphic relationship between them
was revealed. Wall (1043) was exposed only in
Trench D. It comprised one course of a bipartite
wall of Oolitic limestone slabs retaining a rubble
and clay core, its orientation corresponding
approximately to that of the West Barn. The
stratigraphic relationship between wall (1043) and
limestone rubble layer (1036) to the east of it had
been severed by a narrow modern disturbance
[1047] that had cut down on to the top of the
masonry skin of (1043) but without — apparently —
disturbing it. The inclination of surviving upper
surfaces of (1036) further to the east suggests that
(1036) must have lain against the eastern face of
(1043) and possibly over it. It did not extend west
nor beneath (1043). Wall (0005/1018) forms the
extant south-west corner of the West Barn and the
north end of the adjoining enclosure wall. It is L-
shaped in plan and has a fully bonded corner upon
which rested the cruck blade recorded by Haslam
(1984). Though fully integrated in the plan of the
West Barn, it is structurally separate from the
ostensibly adjoining walls (1027, 1007, 0004) with
clear abutting joints visible in the west elevation
and the inner face of the south elevation. Figures 3

RECENT WORK AT BARTON GRANGE FARM, BRADFORD-ON-AVON, 1998-2003
Possible section of wall 7 : 7
eroding out of grass . y
alongside footpath. oa Fon ne
jes ot
Our lee
a
(1057) pe Z
ard,
J
4
(1014) (1014)
seme

I
(1058)
I
J
(1055)
(1017) I
|
j J
G
G (1008) :
(1014)
( AY)
0 1 5m (1011)
————— a
Fig. 2 West Barn. Plan of excavated area

North South

(1018)

Ground Level as at July '01 AS i

~ (1035) (1014) (1002) (1000) (1007)
Apparent original floor level r, 1 0 A ae

Concrete

(1008)

(1024)

: natural :
(1036) (1003

(1023) 1024}

Fig. 3 West Barn. Section N—S through excavations

213

c ee
“coer ane

214 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

Main exoavations and service trenches

| 1047 1046] [1031 | 1015 |

[1032 | [1057] [1014] [1033

= a)
1002] [1017] [202

1044] foo2 |

"{i058] [1030] [ioae [1003] [1009
T ]
[1034]
1059 [1035] 1004 1022

1036] 1005 101

205 | [1008] { 1052] [1014

‘Dairy’ area

1039 | Phase 7
ils Modern

Phase 6
19th century

Phase 5

19th century

Phase 4
16th Century

10 060 1 oe | 1041 |
] oe | Phase 3

Medieval

1061] | 1062 | 051 | Phase 2
Medieval

Phase 1
Natural deposits

Fig. 4. Stratigraphic sequence diagram

and 4 illustrates its stratigraphic separation from
the rest of the buildings: its footing trench [1020]
and foundation (1019) are sealed by layer (1016)
which form the base of a ‘make-up’ sequence
through which walls (1000) and (1027) etc are cut.

Phase 3.

Traces of the lower of two limestone pavements
were encountered in the main excavation and in
Trenches B, C and D, stratigraphically above Phase
2 deposits and partially truncated by the main walls
of the West Barn (Phase 4). The pavement
comprised a well-defined, cambered, 200mm deep
course of limestone ‘pitchstones’ (1003, 1008, 1010,
and 1055) bedded on two layers of compacted
limestone rubble (1004/1022 and _ 1005/1016)
together approximately 200mm thick. Three areas
of paving were revealed: an E-W pavement (1055)
at the west end of the barn, approximately 4.5m
wide; a N-S pavement (1010, 1008, 205) 2.5m wide
and bounded on both sides by well-formed stone
gutters (1011 and 1009) in the excavations on the
south side of the barn; and fragments of a N-S
pavement (1003) against the east end of the north
side of the barn. The latter two were bounded by
spreads of flat-laid limestone rubble paving (1014),
the spatial extent of which lay outside the
excavations. The northern extent of (1003) had
been truncated by later disturbances (see below),

but the compacted limestone rubble base extended
as a continuous and well-defined layer (1036) from
the north face of the barn foundation along the
entire length of Trenches C and D and the western
part of B. Stratigraphically level with the lower
pavement was a series of stone conduits (1030,
1042, 1058) revealed in Trenches C and in the
French drain at the west end of the West Barn.
These conduits were formed of two skins of
undressed limestone slabs approximately 300mm
apart capped by a single course of similarly
undressed limestone slabs, set into the compacted
limestone rubble base (1036) of the lower
pavement. Though visible only in short lengths,
two are discernible: running N-S (1030/1042)
through Trenches C and B, and running E-W
(1058) from the west end of the West Barn. The
eastern extent of (1058) was not identified: it did
not exist within the reduced interior of the West
Barn, and the French drain excavations along the
east and north foundations were not deep enough to
encounter it.

Phase 4. Main walls

The limestone pavements were cut by the footings
of the south (1007), west (0004), north ( 1000) and
east (1006) walls of the West Barn, and in places the
lower course of the wall proper (above the
foundation) lay directly on pavement setts. The

RECENT WORK AT BARTON GRANGE FARM, BRADFORD-ON-AVON, 1998-2003 215

relationship is most clearly demonstrated by the
cross-sectional drawing Figure 3. On the north
side, the footing [1024] of wall (1000) and its
foundation (1023) clearly defines the southern
extent of pavement (1003) — a contemporaneous or
later pavement would butt against the wall face —
while on the south side the lower course of the wall
(1007) rests directly on the pavement (1008).

Phase 5. Blocking wall (1028)

The south elevation immediately prior to
dismantling comprised three fabrics distinguish-
able by bond and slight variations in thickness, and
demarcated by clear and fully ‘closed’ vertical
joints. The stratigraphically highest was ‘blocking’
wall (1028), infilling a 6.80m wide gap in the south
elevation. Though directly related stratigraphically
only to pavements (1008) and (1014), though which
its footing [1027] had cut, the east and west ends of
wall (1028) were ill-formed and lay against the fully
quoined reveals of walls (1007) and (1018),
suggesting they were built against existing
structures. In the north-east corner of the Stack
yard, stratigraphically level with the later
modifications to the West Barn but physically
unconnected with it, were extensively disturbed
paved surfaces, hearths and wall foundations
revealed during site clearance. Materially
unaffected by the works, and now protected
beneath a geotextile and sand membrane, these
were rapidly recorded but not investigated in detail.
Referred to here generically as (1041), the
westernmost components were abutted by the
upper limestone pavement (Phase 6, see below)
indicating that these deposits pre-date it. No
stratigraphic relationship with wall 1054, however,
was established.

Phase 6. Upper pavement

Traces of an upper and more massive paved surface
were revealed in all areas, including the north end
of Trench A. The upper pavement comprised
massive blocks of Carboniferous limestone ( 1017,
1002, 201, 202, 140) resting directly on the lower
pavement (1003 etc) or on localised spreads of
_compacted limestone rubble (1034) that sealed a
localised grey silt clay (1035) revealed only in the
southern end of trench C. The latter — which sealed
Phase 2 layer (1036) — contained fragments of
metamorphic roofing slate and hand-made stock
brick, suggesting (here) an 18th C date for its
deposition, or later. Stratigraphically level, but
physically distant, were the edges of two limestone

pavements (1044, 1045) revealed at the west end of
Trench D, and a slab pavement (1057) within the
outshot walls against the north elevation of the
West Barn. The former were revealed beyond wall
(1043), hard against — and abutting -— the
foundations of the existing building. The
southernmost, (1044) was curved in plan and
appeared centred on a blocked door opening in the
eastern elevation; to the north and 100mm lower
than it, (1045) was aligned almost normal to the
existing building. Both were formed of rectangular
setts —c. 300mm x 100mm x 200mm — rather than
pitchstones.

Pavement (1057) was revealed during localised
re-laying of the rough slab surface between the
outshot walls (0002) and, as a result, neither its
lateral extent nor stratigraphic relationship with
(0002) were identified. It comprised sawn slabs of
Oolitic limestone, 180mm — 200mm wide x
500mm long, laid parallel to the axis of the
building and, apparently, hard against the wall
face, with an upper surface 250mm below site
datum. Packed tightly together, but with no
evidence of a bonding agent, the visible slabs
formed a rectangular platform approximately
860mm x 500mm, the interior of which had been
gauged out to create well-defined 40mm wide lip
around the edge. The reduced interior was
intentional and, on the basis of chisel marks,
executed in situ. The coincidence of the lip with the
position of the easternmost lean-to wall suggests that
these are contemporaneous.

Phase 7. Modern disturbances

Where absent, the upper pavement (1017 etc.) was
replaced by a thick deposit of coal clinker/cinders
(1032, 1033, 1014) that extended in thickness of up
to 600mm across the entire site. Where juxtaposed —
for instance at the south end of Trench C — the
cinders lay against the setts (1017 etc.) within a
shallow cut into the bedding layers, suggesting that
the cinders were infilling a void created by removal
of the setts. The cinders lay against all four
foundations of the West Barn and extended across
the entire site area, and formed the lowest layer
encountered in the French drain excavations
around the east and north foundations of the West
Barn and across most of the length of Trenches A
and B. The cinder deposit was sealed by concrete
surfaces and cut into by a number of drains, service
pipes and excavated disturbances. These are not
further described here.

216 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

Artefactual Data

No datable artefacts were recovered during the
operations, other than post-18th-century material
such as roofing slate and bricks. These have been
discarded, and are described in the stratigraphic
descriptions above.

Palaeoenvironmental Data

No deposits suitable for palaeoenvironmental
analysis were revealed; and no coarse materials,
such as animal bone, were recovered.

CONCLUSIONS

Wall (1043) appears to be the feature identified by
Haslam (1984) — feature (1047) being his backfilled
trench — and there is no reason to dispute his
interpretation that it represents one side of a
rectangular building with orientation correspon-
ding to the Tithe Barn that predates construction of
the West Barn. Similarly, his interpretation of wall
(1018) as a remnant of an earlier building is also
supported by the stratigraphic data recovered here,
but there is no direct stratigraphic link between the
two and, indeed, they differ significantly in the
form of foundation. They are both earlier than the
West Barn, but in all other respects cannot be
related. The ashlar quoining (0005) at the west end
of (1018) may be a later dressing of an exposure, as
the work differs from all other fabric on the site.
Culvert (1058) coincides exactly with the
position and orientation of the north wall of
Haslam’s ‘porch’, and is a substantial sub-surface
structure that also coincides exactly with the
functionally ambiguous breaks in the fabric of the
west elevation of the West Barn. Unfortunately,
floor reductions within the West Barn subsequent
to Haslam’s excavations have removed all trace of
the eastward continuations of (1058); and the
French drains excavated for the present work were
not deep enough to encounter its continuation
beyond that, so it is not possible to test Haslam’s
interpretation. However, the culvert and _ its
associated feature (1030) to the east are strati-
graphically level with the lower limestone pavement
(1008 etc.), an extensive deposit that is strati-
graphically later than walls (1018) and (1043). If
(1058) is the western extension of the feature Haslam
described as a wall foundation, it is a drain, and it
cannot be associated with walls (1043) or (1018).

The lower limestone pavement (1008 etc.) is an
unambiguous structure, and appears to be one
component of an extensive network of paths and
surfaces extending away from the West barn in all
directions. It remains undated here, and, as a
utilitarian structure executed in vernacular
material, is inherently undatable. It is, however,
identical in form to the limestone pavements
adjacent to the Tithe Barn and so might be broadly
contemporaneous. If this is the case, Haslam is
correct in ascribing a pre-Tithe Barn date to walls
(1043) and (1018)

We conclude that the West Barn was built in a
single principal episode in 1769, utilising wall
(1018) which had by that time been dressed with
ashlars (0005) at its west end. The matching pier
(0003) to the north of it suggests the possibility of
an earlier structure related to (1018), but no trace
exists within or beneath the West Barn.
Furthermore, the poor closing of the rubble
masonry against its north edge suggests that (0003)
was added to an existing wall. The east, north, west
and most of the southern walls were constructed in
shallow footings excavated through the limestone
pavement (1008 etc) and the shallow soils (1012 and
1013) that had developed over it. The building in
its original form had a very broad opening in its
south side, to link with the pre-existing open-sided
cattle shed/ cart shed that had been built against
wall (1018), but the west gable was fully closed. The
rubble masonry forming the west gable was stitched
into the pre-existent ashlar quoins (0005) of (1018)
above first-floor level. The ashlar work may have
been a modification of (1018), perhaps a later
dressing of exposed core material at a break. The
visually matching pier of ashlars (0003) on the
north side of the gable, which is founded on culvert
(1058), is also a veneer — the vertical joints evident
in the west face are not present in the internal east
face — suggesting a repair or perhaps a cosmetic
treatment, in the absence of a more plausible
explanation. The gambrel-roofed shed existed until
1923, at least, though the date of blocking (1027)
that probably followed its demolition cannot be
more accurately estimated.

The upper pavement — (1017) etc. — extended
across the entire site and utilised carboniferous
limestone. Not local to this site, this type of stone
would have been prohibitively expensive to
transport prior to the canal or railway eras. Layers
immediately beneath it contained metamorphic
roofing slate and brick fragments which suggest a
post-18th-century date. It is likely, therefore, that

RECENT WORK AT BARTON GRANGE FARM, BRADFORD-ON-AVON, 1998-2003 217

the upper pavement was a 19th-century addition to
Barton Grange Farm. It was subsequently remove
and replaced by cinders, at an unknown date prior
to the 1982 excavations.

Bibliography

ASI, 1998, ‘West Barn....Bradford on Avon: Historic
Building Record’. (Non publication assessment
report Ref. ASI 3078 submitted to English Heritage
and Wiltshire County Council)

ASI, 2000, ‘West Barn.....Bradford on Avon:
archaeological works to accompany....: project
design’. (non publication project design ref. ASI
3167/1 submitted to English Heritage with SMC
application)

HARVEY, R.B., and HARVEY, B.K., 1993, Bradford-on-
Avon in the 14th Century, WANHM, 86, 118-129
HASLAM, J., 1976, Wiltshire Towns: The archaeological

potential. Devizes: WANHS.

HASLAM, J., 1984, Excavations at Barton Farm,
Bradford-on-Avon, 1983: Interim Report, WANHM,
78, 120-121

LAKE, J., 1989, Historic Farm Buildings

218 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE |

Durrington
Amesbury

PACKWAY g
ENCLOSURE SALISBURY

DURRINGTON
WALLS |

WOODHENGE

Ba
WOODLANDS
43 PITS

Boscombe
Down
West

Route of @ Long barrow
pipeline

40 tf,
Wy Built-up area ® Extant round barrow

ot Principal o Site of
* cropmarks round barrow

WA/SEJ 15

Fig. 1 The pipeline location with known archaeological features

Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History Magazine, vol. 97 (2004), pp. 218-248

An Archaeological and Environmental Study of the
Neolithic and Later Prehistoric Landscape of the

Avon Valley and Durrington Walls Environs

by Rosamund M.7. Cleal,'! Michael F. Allen’? and Caron Newman?’
with contributions from S. Hamilton-Dyer, Phil Harding, Lorraine Mepham,
Elaine L. Morris, Robert G. Scaife and S.F. Wyles

Small-scale excavations and a watching brief along the route of a water mains between two reservoirs at Durrington
Walls and Earl’s Farm Down recorded Neolithic pits and other later prehistoric features to the north of Durrington
Walls and later prehistoric features on Earl’s Farm Down, including a section excavated through the Earl’s Farm
Down linear ditch. Other features included a probable Roman burial near Durrington Walls and a ploughed out disc
barrow. The Avon valley floodplain profile was recorded by an auger transect along the pipeline route where 1t crossed
the Avon valley. Peat and organic sediments were recorded from which a key pollen sequence for southern England was
obtained, dating from the Upper Palaeolithic and very Early Mesolithic through to the Roman and medieval periods.

Wessex Archaeology was commissioned by Wessex
Water Construction Ltd. to undertake excavations
and a watching brief during the laying of a water
mains to the north of Amesbury (SU 1487 4400 to
SU 1878 4135). The first stage of the project was
undertaken in the spring and summer of 1991,
followed by observation of the River Avon crossing
in autumn 1991. The final section of the pipeline
was constructed between mid-November and mid-
December 1991, when a watching brief was
maintained at the western reservoir site where a
new water treatment works was constructed.

TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY

The pipeline route (Figure 1) crosses the rolling
Upper Chalk downland of the Salisbury Plain north
of Amesbury. Numerous dendritic dry valleys
dissect the chalk upland, some of which are mapped
as containing valley gravel (including Folly

Bottom), and localised valley bottom colluvium.
The downland here is bisected by the meandering
course of the River Avon which is mapped as
containing valley gravel and alluvium. The
pipeline route crossed the floodplain alluvium ona
large meander bend to the east of Durrington Walls.
The soils are mainly brown rendzinas over the
Upper Chalk, with typical calcareous brown earths
mapped within the valley of the River Avon, over
alluvial and flinty subsoils (Jarvis et al. 1984).

ARCHAEOLOGICAL
BACKGROUND

The pipeline passes through an area of obvious
archaeological importance (Figure 1). The western
end of the route passed just 120m to the north of the
henge monument of Durrington Walls with the
Packway Iron Age enclosure 50m to the south

' Alexander Keiller Museum, Avebury, Marlborough SN8 1RF ? Wessex Archaeology, Portway House, Old Sarum Park, Salisbury
SP46EB ? Egerton Lea Consultancy, Room 9, Victoria Hall, Grange over Sands LAI] 6DP

220 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

(Wainwright and Longworth 1971). The latter was
partially excavated in 1968 and has been more
recently subject to work in advance of a gas pipeline
(Graham and Newman 1993, 52-5). The dating of
the enclosure within the Iron Age remains
uncertain and, on the basis of the recent work, it
appears to have few internal features.

The area to the east of the River Avon also
contains numerous linear cropmarks and barrows.
North of the A303 the pipeline passes close to
Longbarrow Clump (SU 1640 4304) and to the
south of a dispersed round barrow cemetery (SU
1725 4289). The length of pipeline south of the
A303 runs through an area characterised by
intensive linear cropmarks, the Earl’s Farm Down
field system (centred SU 1840 4120), and round
barrow groups (centred SU 1790 4230, SU 1780
4180, SU 1800 4148 and SU 1880 4100). The Earl’s
Farm Down field system has been studied as part of
the Wessex Linear Ditch Project, a programme of
survey and excavation undertaken by _ the
University of Reading (Bradley et al. 1994). This
project revealed that much of the field system on
Earl’s Farm Down, once thought to be associated
with a major Bronze Age linear ditch, dates to the
Roman period.

METHODS

A series of small excavations was undertaken where
the pipeline crossed known features. Following
these excavations, the topsoil was stripped from the
remainder of the pipeline route and most of the
Durrington reservoir, all of which was examined for
archaeological features and artefacts. Pipe
trenching was observed in plots where subsoil
might mask features. The main concentrations of
features have been assigned site numbers, and these
are shown in Figures 2 and 8.

Where the pipeline crossed the valley of the
River Avon, the alluvial profile was recorded and
sampled in a transect of auger holes at 10 m
intervals (Figure 2). Samples were taken from the
most significant sequence and provided a key

vegetational history of the adjacent chalk
downland.

ORGANIZATION OF THE
REPORT

Although the entire length of the pipeline was
observed, archaeological discoveries were largely

confined to two main areas: i) the high ground to
the north-west of the river, in the vicinity of
Durrington Walls henge monument; and ii) Earl’s
Farm Down. Minor archaeological features were
identified in the Avon valley, including three water
meadow ditches and a probable field boundary
(Figure 2, Sites 5 and 6 respectively), as well as
small quantities of prehistoric and Roman pottery
and a scatter of worked flint in the area between
Sites 5 and 6. These are not reported here in detail,
but are listed in archive.

Finds in the Durrington Walls area were mainly
of Neolithic date, and those from Earl’s Farm
Down of Bronze Age or later date. In addition,
environmental data obtained from the Avon valley,
and from a shallow colluvial sequence at Folly
Bottom allow the landscape context of both areas to
be put into a broader landscape and environmental
context. Thus the report is divided into four
sections: Durrington Walls environs, the Avon
valley, Folly Bottom and Earl’s Farm Down.

PART 1: DURRINGTON
WALLS ENVIRONS - SITES
1-4

NEOLITHIC FEATURES

Prehistoric features, almost certainly dating to the
later Neolithic, occurred along the pipeline from
the area of the reservoir to the west, to the area
north of the river meander in the east (Figure 2, A
and B). Within the area of the reservoir and its
access road at Durrington Walls (Site 1, Figure 2),
the earliest datable feature was a small pit, 155,
situated some 28m to the west of a second pit, 157
(Figure 3). The feature was circular in plan and
measured 1.35m in diameter and 0.51m deep.
Although the pit had been cut into crumbling
weathered chalk, there was very little chalk in the
dark yellowish-brown silty clay fill. It contained a
total of 18 Neolithic flint artefacts including a
broken ground flint axe, a single piece of burnt
flint, 26 fragments of bone, mainly cattle, and some
traces of charcoal. The absence of chalk rubble and
the uniform nature of the deposit indicate that the
pit was backfilled in a single episode soon after it
was dug.

Pit 157 was a shallow scoop cut into the chalk
(Figures 2 and 3), 1.2m in diameter and 0.19m deep.

NEOLITHIC AND LATER PREHISTORIC LANDSCAPE OF THE AVON VALLEY 221

KEY
\ Route of pipeline

* = Site (numbered)

227 i) Archaeological
z features

Sey Compound
WY Built-up area

5
ae Site 1

= Reservoir

OUD

‘157

Fig. 2. The pipeline between Durrington reservoir and the radio station, showing site locations

It was filled with a dark yellowish-brown silty clay
and contained a very large amount of burnt flint
(195 pieces weighing 4.38kg), but no evidence of
flint working or other kinds of waste material. The
average size of the burnt flint was far larger than in
any other feature excavated along the pipeline.

The earliest feature recorded was pit 165, a
shallow cut into the chalk (Figure 3) directly north
of the Neolithic henge monument (Figure 2, Site 2).
It contained worked flint, animal bone and 20
sherds of Grooved Ware pottery. The large quantity
of struck flint from the pit included seven scrapers,

227 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

(All plans)

8822 6| Chalk rubble

Flint nodules

2
QOS
poe

Burnt flint

Fig. 3 Sections through features from Sites 1-4, Durrington Walls environs

a knife and two retouched flakes. The animal bone,
although small in quantity, included pig and cattle
bones, as well as a fragment of jaw and tooth from a
beaver.

Three widely spaced features were identified to
the east of the roundabout (Figure 2, Site 3). The
first was pit 184, a substantial, bell-shaped feature
0.57m deep with a diameter of 0.85m. It contained
146 pieces of Neolithic struck flint (see Harding

below), two sherds of pottery, and animal bone
fragments including the remains of an antler pick.
The pottery has no distinguishing characteristics,
but is likely to be Neolithic, because of its
association with so much worked flint of that date.
Twenty metres to the east was a very shallow
circular pit, 182, 0.65m in diameter, and filled with
a silty clay (Figure 3). The feature was so ephemeral
that interpretation is difficult, however, two flint

NEOLITHIC AND LATER PREHISTORIC LANDSCAPE OF THE AVON VALLEY 223

flakes and a core were recovered from the fill, and it
is probably prehistoric.

Site 4 lay to the east of Site 3 and included a
number of features spread over about 500m. The
most westerly was 174, a small irregular depression.
This was roughly oval in plan, with a flat base and it
produced a large amount of burnt flint (1.79kg), 11
fragments of animal bone and three flint flakes. The
fill was homogeneous in character, indicating that
the feature had been backfilled in a single episode.

LATER FEATURES

At the reservoir, an inhumation of Romano-British
or later date was found lying within a ditched
enclosure (188) (Figure 2, Site 1). The human
remains were those of an immature individual
(Jenkins, pers. comm.), about 12 years of age,
within a grave. A water pipe trench had previously
destroyed around 75% of the grave. The remainder
was excavated, revealing both legs and feet below
the knees. A quantity of disarticulated bone was
also recovered, and only the arms and a tibia remain
missing. The grave was aligned west-east, and was
filled with very loose vacuous chalk rubble. The in
situ legs and feet were surrounded by square-shank
nails, which appear to have been part of a coffin. No
datable material was recovered from the grave, but
the west-east style of burial and the presence of a
coffin suggests a Roman or later date.

A ditch (186), situated to the east of the
roundabout and running north-south, was possibly
of later prehistoric date (Figure 2, Site 3). Post-
medieval field boundaries and wheel-ruts were also
encountered (Figure 2, features 159, 161, 167, 170
and 172).

UNDATED FEATURE

Ditch 146 was situated at the junction between the
access road and the A3028 (Figure 2, Site 1). There
was no time available for this feature to be
excavated because of its position on the access
road. It was, however, sealed, and thus preserved,
below a layer of ‘terrain’ and hard-core. The
‘feature was 1.7m wide, and ran across the line of
the access road on a west-south-west to east-north-
east axis. The ditch was filled with a light
yellowish-brown fine silty clay, a much finer
deposit than the fills of other features observed in
this area, and appears to have been washed into the
ditch by successive periods of rain. No finds were
recovered from the top of this fill.

POTTERY

by Elaine L. Morris and Rosamund M.f.
Cleal

Twenty sherds from a single Grooved Ware vessel
were recovered from pit 165 (Site 2; Figures 2 and
4). The form is not reconstructable, but the three
conjoining sherds appear to belong to the base and
lower part of the vessel. The fabric is soft and
contains sparse quartz sand (0.5mm), rare iron
oxides (small reddish grains responding to a
magnet), rare calcareous fragments (shell or chalk;
the fragments are too small to identify), and some
grog. The grog is difficult to distinguish from the
matrix. The colour is pale brown (exterior), dark
grey-brown (interior) and the core black. The
decoration consists of incised lines and jabbed
impressions, with at least one wavy applied cordon.
It is not possible to reconstruct the arrangement of
the decoration, but areas of jabbed impressions do
occur on vessels with zones of incision, although
the impressed decoration tends to be confined to
the upper body, as for instance on P77 and P229 at
Durrington Walls (Longworth 1971, figs 38 and
49). The wavy cordon is also paralleled at
Durrington Walls, where there is one sherd with a
smooth wavy cordon (fig. 36, P58) and several with
wavy rusticated cordons (fig. 44, P162-167). The
example from pit 165 seems more similar to the latter

Fig. 4 Grooved Ware from Site 2, pit 165

224 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

than the former. The presence of a such a cordon,
which is almost certainly vertical, enables the vessel
to be assigned to the Durrington Walls sub-style of
the Grooved Ware tradition (op cit. 240-242).

Two additional sherds, recovered from pit 184
(Site 3), are also likely to be Neolithic in date but
these have no diagnostic characteristics. One is ina
fine, micaceous clay containing infrequent
fragments of flint, whilst the other has rounded
quartz grains and rare pieces of flint and a
limestone similar to chalk. On the grounds of their
fabric and general appearance they are almost
certainly not later Neolithic, but could be earlier
Neolithic. As the flake analysis of the flint indicates
a later Neolithic date for the associated flint
assemblage (Harding below), it is possible that this
material is residual.

WORKED FLINT
by Phil Harding

The flint contents of the excavated features are
shown in Table 1. Features 174 and 182 contained
insufficient material to be informative.

Raw material and condition

The flakes and tools were removed from cores made
of large pieces of good quality flint. It is nodular in
form with incipient thermal fractures and a thick
chalky cortex. No fresh exposures of Chalk were
seen during the installation of the pipe so it was not
possible to compare the cores with the local flint.
Wainwright and Longworth (1971, 162) recorded
seams of flint nodules that were exposed in the
Durrington Walls ditch. The flint mines located
70m north of the pipeline (Booth and Stone 1952)
produced only poor quality flint and are therefore
unlikely to have provided the raw material. Three
flakes from feature 184 (Site 3), two of which refit,
were removed from a nodule of gravel flint that was
probably obtained from the Avon valley. The
material is in mint condition and patinated white

with some pieces heavily coated with calcium
carbonate concretion.

Technology

The material from pit 184 provided the only sample
of sufficient quantity to be suitable for analysis.
This was carried out using the system adopted for
the Stonehenge Environs Project (Harding 1990).
The analysis shows that flakes were apparently
removed using soft hammers, probably cortical
parts of a flint nodule. Butts are generally less than
5mm across and percussion angles between 70° and
80°. Most of the flakes are large, only 13%
measuring less than 30mm long and 7% less than
20mm wide. Most flakes are squat in shape with
74% less than 5.5:5 (breadth:length), although
blades, represented by flakes with length equal to
twice width, comprise only 12% of the sample. The
largest flake from the pit exhibited characteristics
similar to those of Levallois technology (Figure 5,
1).

The results of the flake analysis are comparable
with the Grooved Ware assemblages at Durrington
Walls (Wainwright and Longworth 1971) and King
Barrow Ridge (Harding 1990). The similarities are
particularly apparent in the overall flake shape
(breadth:length). All three sites contain similar
proportions of blades (11% Durrington Walls; 15%
King Barrow Ridge) and flake maximums with
breadth:length ratios of 4.5:5 (28% Durrington
Walls; 34% King Barrow Ridge). The most marked
divergence occurs in overall size, particularly flake
length, where only 13% of the flakes from the
Durrington pipeline pits measure less than 30mm.
None of the assemblages of industrial waste from
the Stonehenge Environs Project approached this
proportion. The residue from flint knapping
usually includes higher proportions of small
material once the tool blanks have been removed.
Although the contents of the pit were not sieved, it
is unlikely that flakes of less than 30 mm would be
lost during the excavation. It must be assumed,

Table 1. Worked flint from features in the Durrington Walls environs

Feature Core Flake Broken Burnt

flake flake flake

Pits55 l 6 - 1 6
Pit 165 3 13 10 3 7)
Pit 174 - 3 . - -
Scoop 182 1 - 2 - -
Pit 184 5 74 44 8 2
Ditch 186 2 1 - - -
Total 12 Cy) 56 12 10

RetouchedScraper Scraper/ Knife/ Chisel Axe Other Total

knife _ fabricator arrowhead

1 . - 1 - 18
: 1 - . - 39
= : 3 - - 3

- - 1 - 12 146

NEOLITHIC AND LATER PREHISTORIC LANDSCAPE OF THE AVON VALLEY 225

0 50 100

mm SEJ

Fig. 5 Flint artefacts from Sites 1-4

therefore, that small material was never present.

None of the flakes showed signs of use.

The cores that accompanied the flakes comprise
two single platform cores, two others with a second
flaking surface forming a ‘bifacial’ core, and a
biconical/discoidal core. This suggests that no
consistent form of core was produced, however the
technique of flaking these cores produced flakes
with squat proportions. Striking platforms were

generally prepared although it is unclear how much
deliberate faceting occurred during flake
production.

Scrapers

The nine flake scrapers from pits 155 and 165 are
welj made and comprise seven end scrapers (Figure
5, 2), a discoidal scraper (Figure 5, 3) and one
double end scraper (Figure 5, 4). Retouch is direct,

226 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

continuous and usually only on the distal end,
producing a convex scraping edge. The eight
unbroken blanks average 56 mm long, 50 mm wide
and 14 mm thick.

Although the scrapers comprise only a small
collection they compare well with implements from
late Neolithic contexts at the West Kennet Avenue
(Smith 1965, 95), Durrington Walls (Wainwright
and Longworth 1971, 168) and King Barrow Ridge
(Harding 1990, 222). Scraper blanks at these sites
were consistently thinner than at other prehistoric
periods. The mean thickness of the Durrington
Pipeline scrapers is 14mm. The largest individual
group, however, lies within the bracket 9-13 mm,
which is in accord with the other groups.

Knives, microdenticulates and edge retouched
flakes

Seven retouched flakes were found with marginal
edge retouch (Figure 5, 5), of which one was
classified as a microdenticulate. Five of these pieces
were from pit 155 and the remainder from pit 165.
They range from 46mm to 76mm in length and
were selected for their straight or slightly convex
edges. The edge was usually modified by marginal
direct retouch but unretouched edges, smoothed by
use, are also present.

Chisel arrowhead

A chisel arrowhead of Clark’s type C (Clark 1934)
was found in pit 184 (Figure 5, 6). It has been made
on a lightly ridged flake with truncations which
converge on the left edge. It shares similar
dimensions with a small group of chisel arrowheads
from King Barrow Ridge (Harding 1990, table 121).

Ground flint axe

The blade of a ground flint axe (Figure 5, 7),
snapped at the hafting, was found in pit 155. Both
sides were ground completely smooth although
residual flake scars remain near the edges. The
blade is heavily damaged and chipped through use.

Miscellaneous tools

An implement classified as a scraper/knife was
found in pit 155. This piece, made on a naturally
backed flake, was blunted with irregular direct
retouch. The opposite edge was modified by
marginal, direct flaking. A knife/fabricator, which
may have been snapped in manufacture, was found
in pit 165 (Figure 5, 8). It has a rounded tip and
both edges are shaped by direct, continuous,
irregular retouch.

Discussion

The excavated pits found north of Durrington
Walls undoubtedly form part of a single complex;
however they showed considerable variations in
both the quantity and type of their flint contents.
Pits 155 and 165 were dominated largely by
implements from domestic or ritual functions,
while pit 184 contained what appeared to be
industrial waste. It has been noted however that
this assemblage contains unusual features of size.

In their reassessment of the Rinyo-Clacton
‘culture’, Wainwright and Longworth (1971) listed
the frequency with which individual tool types
occurred in Grooved Ware contexts. Flint artefacts
were recorded from 88% of the listed sites, of which
scrapers, transverse arrowheads, knives, saws,
ground axe fragments and fabricators occurred in at
least 27%. The tools from the Durrington Pipeline
appear typical, and although Grooved Ware pottery
was only found in one feature, an association can be
inferred for the remaining features. The study of
the scrapers showed a marked similarity to groups
where larger assemblages were examined.

The use of pits for the deposition of domestic
refuse, including discarded flint tools, is also in
keeping, both with the local occurrences at King
Barrow Ridge and with findings from national
distributions (Wainwright and Longworth 1971,
250). At King Barrow Ridge, it was also apparent
that no large-scale industrial activity was
represented but that knapping was confined to
small-scale domestic production. It was also
considered that flint, exemplified at King Barrow
Ridge by a large flake with Levallois characteristics
(Harding 1990, 217), may have been imported from
the south of the Stonehenge Environs, where large
scale industrial knapping appears to be associated
with more plentiful raw material. The presence of a
similar flake measuring 118 mm in length from pit
184 may also be associated with this source.

ANIMAL BONE
by Sheila Hamilton-Dyer

The four later Neolithic pits (155, 165, 174 and
183) produced 80 fragments of animal bone. The
species distribution for these four features is given
in Table 2.

The largest group, of 50 fragments, was
recovered from pit 184. Forty-six of these were pig,
from at least three individuals indicating a
minimum of two males and one female. The
animals were not mature, tooth eruption indicates

NEOLITHIC AND LATER PREHISTORIC LANDSCAPE OF THE AVON VALLEY 227

Table 2. Animal bone from features in the Durington Walls Environs

Feature Context Cattle Red deer Pig
Pit 155 156 11 - Z
Pit 165 166 2 - 2
Pit 174 175 - 1 -

Pit 184 185 1 2 42
Total 14 3 46

% 17.4% 3.7% 57.4%
Ditch 186 187 (scanned)- - =

Horse Unidentified Beaver Total
mammal

- 9 - 20
5 1 8

- 1 - 2

- 5 - 50

0 16 1 80

0 20% 1.3% 100

1 . - 1

one animal of approximately six months and two
between 12 and 18 months (Bull and Payne 1982).
Of the tibia fragments, two (not a pair) had unfused
distal epiphyses, also indicating animals under two
years at time of slaughter. The fragments are biased
towards head and hind legs. This is slightly offset
by the fragmentation of the jaws and maxillae and
the presence of some of the foot bones (11 fragments
are probably from the same leg). There are,
however, no fragments of scapula or foreleg perhaps
indicating a deliberate deposition of mostly head
and lower leg joints. Although not the prime meat
joints, the head and feet of the pig are not
necessarily regarded as waste, as they often are for
sheep and cattle. The female jaw had been axially
chopped, a common butchery practice. Other pig
fragments were one acetabulum and two vertebrae.
Four rib fragments of a medium sized mammal and
a small fragment of skull are probably also of pig.
The smaller bones are underrepresented, only three
phalanges compared with nine metapodi and three
calcanae were present. If three feet are represented,
12 metapodi and 36 phalanges would be expected.
This loss may be due to both recovery methods and
preservation.

Only one cattle bone was identified, a portion of
chopped rib. Two fragments of red deer were
present, one of which was a poorly preserved
metatarsal shaft. The other was part of a shed antler,
probably a discarded pick. The preservation is not
good enough to show presence or absence of wear in
use. The main beam is broken below the crown, just
above the trez tine. Only one brow tine arises from

“the base of the beam, whereas two are a
characteristic of the species. The single tine variant
is sometimes present in British red deer stocks
today (Staines 1991). This occurrence implies the
ancient origins of this presumably genetic
variation. The presence of the burr at the base of the
beam indicates this antler was collected after the
stag had shed its antlers. Many antler picks, often

shed ones, were found in the excavations at
Durrington Walls, as at many other Neolithic
monuments, where they were used to dig the pits
and ditches (Harcourt 1971) and were frequently
deliberately deposited (cf. Wainwright and
Longworth 1971; Sargeantson and Gardiner 1995).

Pit 174 contained a proximal portion of a red
deer metatarsus and a small fragment of mammal
rib. The other three pits, 155, 165, and 184, all
contained pig and cattle bones. No sheep or goat
bones were identified. Pit 155 contained at least
four cattle individuals. These varied from calf to
probably fully grown. The assemblage did not
represent the disposal of just feet, as fragments of
femur, ulna, scapula, vertebra and a tooth were also
present. Two pig scapulae, probably a pair, were also
present and perhaps represent a_ deliberate
deposition rather than disposal of waste.

Only eight bones were recovered from small
shallow pit 165 (Figure 3). These were fragments of
a pig maxilla and a deciduous lower incisor, a cattle
radius and frontal and two unidentified fragments
of cattle size. The remaining fragment was the
lower right incisor and fragment of jaw of a beaver,
Castor fiber. This species has been recorded from
several local Neolithic sites, including Durrington
Walls (Harcourt 1971) and the Coneybury Anomaly
(Maltby 1990), and their significance has been
outlined by Coles (1992). This might suggest a
significant population of beaver in the Avon valley
during the Neolithic.

Discussion

Although the fragment numbers are extremely
small, pit 184 contains mostly pig bones. Late
Neolithic deposits, especially those associated with
Grooved Ware, often have a high proportion of pig
in the animal remains when compared with cattle
and sheep (Harcourt 1971; Legge 1991). Many of
these deposits appear to have a ritual element and
are selective so do not accurately reflect the

228 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

composition of the livestock. Pigs, with their high
reproduction rate and limited usefulness as adults,
are an ideal feasting animal. They also prefer
woodlands and are excellent at clearing regenerating
woodland. The problems of interpretation have
frequently been discussed (Grigson 1982; Richards
and Thomas 1984; Maltby 1990), and the degree to
which their prevalence reflects selection for feasting
or the amount of local woodland is unresolved (see
Bradley 1984, chapter 3). The presence of beaver
remains may also indicate that the nearby Avon
valley was more wooded than today.

Although the sample is very small, the high
number of pig bones, the selection of joints, and
lack of sheep bones all fit well with material from
Durrington Walls where the midden in particular
contained a mass of pig bones (Wainwright and
Longworth 1971). The association with Grooved
Ware and flint artefacts is significant; it is highly
probable that the material from this group of pits
reflects the ritual activity at Durrington Walls, and
indeed in the wider Stonehenge environs.

PART 2: AVON VALLEY
FLOODPLAIN SEDIMENTS:
THE PRE-ROMAN
VEGETATIONAL HISTORY
by Robert G. Scaife

The northern floodplain of the River Avon,
approximately 300m east of Durrington Walls, was
surveyed and augered to provide a detailed cross-
profile of the valley alluvium (Figures 2 and 6).
Samples for pollen analysis were obtained from the
deepest sequence of peat and organic sediments.
The location was of special interest because of the
possibility of pollen preservation in alluvial
sediments and peats in proximity to Durrington
Walls (Wainwright 1971). This might enable
correlation with Dimbleby’s ‘on-site’ pollen analysis
of the henge (in Wainwright and Longworth 1971,
332-4) and Evans’s environmental changes as
shown by molluscan analyses (Evans 1971, 329-37).
The full report is available in archive.

STRATIGRAPHY
by Michael F. Allen and Robert G. Scaife

Ten boreholes were examined on the northern side
of the River Avon floodplain. The surface of the

floodplain, which is now largely under pasture,
supports a gleyed soil caused by a fluctuating
ground water table. In places, this also comprises
highly oxidised peat. The lithostratigraphy ranges
from grey alluvial silts with varying thicknesses
and degrees of organic content to humified fen peat

with only small quantities of inorganics. A

maximum depth of 1.68m of monocot peat and

organic silt was recorded in borehole 6 (Figure 6)

from which detailed pollen analysis was obtained.

The character of these sediments is given below.

These rest on sands, which appeared in the field to

be glauconitic and derived from the Upper

Greensand, and in places on_ gravel of

undetermined age (e.g. borehole 1).

0 -0.30m Oxidised chocolate brown, humified peat
with silt. Monocotyledonous remains were
evident. Occasional chips of flint present.
0.30—0.35m Wetter, darker brown peat and grey silts

containing monocotyledonous remains and
occasional flint chips.

0.35 -—1.47m Chocolate brown peat. Well humified but
with identifiable monocotyledonous
remains. Charcoal present at 1.12m and
Roman pottery at 1.15 m. Sharp, well
defined junction with he underlying very
dark brown to black highly humifed peat
(DURR: 4 DURR: 3 DURR: 2).

1.47—1.60m Very dark brown to black humified peat
with little visible structure (DURR: 1).

1.60-—1.74m Grey-green glauconoitic fine to medium
sand. Weathered or transported Upper
Greensand.

The gravel is likely to be river terrace gravel or
gravel sheets laid down during the late Devensian
or early Flandrian (c. 10,000 BP). Calcareous marls
and silts form a thin deposit over the gravel and
glauconotic sand, and varying depths of floodplain
and local channel peat form most of the floodplain
profile (Figure 6). A horizon of fine charcoal
fragments was recorded at 1.12 m in borehole 6. In
this same sequence, a single sherd of undiagnostic
Roman pottery was recovered from a depth of 1.14
m indicating that most of the floodplain sequence is
probably of post Romano-British date.

There was a noticeable change between the
lower dark brown/black peats and overlying lighter
peat and alluvial silts noted in a number of the
profiles. This is one of a number of possible hiatuses
in the alluvial stratigraphy which have been detected
in the pollen/biostratigraphy. Immediately adjacent

NEOLITHIC AND LATER PREHISTORIC LANDSCAPE OF THE AVON VALLEY 229

to the river is a distinct levee (Figure 6, borehole 10)
built up from dredging and dumping along the
banks. This comprised up to 1m of silts with
derived ash, and modern (glazed) pottery was
recovered in the silts beneath the make-up.

SAMPLING AND POLLEN
ANALYSIS (core 6)

Coring was undertaken using a 30mm diameter
gouge corer with a lm chamber because of the
relative dryness and stiffness of the sediments.
Sampling was carried out at 20mm intervals in the
field. Samples of 1ml were prepared using standard
pollen extraction techniques (Moore et al. 1991). A
minimum of 300 pollen grains plus spores was
counted at each level, and where pollen was more
abundant a greater sum was obtained. Full details
are given in archive.

The results are presented in standard form as a
summary diagram only (Figure 7) with pollen
represented as a percentage of total dry land taxa
and spores as a percentage of total pollen plus
spores. Pollen of marsh and aquatic taxa are
calculated as a percentage of total dry land pollen
plus determinable wetland taxa. Nomenclature

2)
o
io
s
o
=

follows that of Stace (1991) for plants and Moore et
al. (1991).

Forty-one levels were analysed at 20mm
intervals from the base at 1.60m to 0.92m and at
40mm intervals from 0.92m to 0.68m. A number of
significant changes can be seen in the pollen
stratigraphy which have enabled four principal
pollen assemblage zones to be assigned
(Durrington: 1-4, Figure 7). The most significant
pollen assemblages (Durrington: 1) relate to late
Devensian and early Flandrian conditions and
there is little evidence of human interference in this
natural sequence, or evidence of relevant
archaeological activity, so this data is only
summarised here.

VEGETATION HISTORY

The depositional environment of river floodplains
present problems not usually encountered in the
peat forming environments of larger fens and bogs.
Taphonomic questions of sediment/pollen sources
and river erosive and depositional processes must
be considered in addition to interpretations about
the local/autochthonous and region/pollen sources
(cf. Burrin and Scaife 1984; Scaife and Burrin 1992;
Hunt 1987; Moore et al. 1991).

KEY
my Topsoil = Alluvial/grey silt
YA Peat Gravel

Calcareous marl Greensand

EE Buff marl % Roman pottery

8640+ 200BP

1
100 metres

Fig. 6 Schematic profile through the auger transect across the Avon valley

230 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

D
=
Led
Oo
Ww
oS}
S
XE:
8
Ea
an
E
os
=
=
Qo
SS
=
nv
3
Q
™
s So
3 a
=
2
aS
&
2
fp
ae

Humified Peat

Es b
Fen Peat Pot

wa yydaq

NEOLITHIC AND LATER PREHISTORIC LANDSCAPE OF THE AVON VALLEY 231

At Durrington (Figure 7) the peat represents
‘on-site’ organic accumulation on the floodplain
communities of fen, wet pasture and carr woodland,
and the inorganic sediments are derived from
fluvially transported sediments and by colluvial
processes from the valley sides. Thus, pollen input
into this location may come from a variety of sources
but, nevertheless, illustrates the vegetation history of
the local region. The pollen spectra illustrated in
Figure 7 provides interpretation of the development
of the floodplain vegetation and of the dry-land plant
communities. It will be evident that changes on the
interfluves may also have had an effect on the
character of the floodplain. Changes within the
drainage basin may be responsible for variations in
sedimentation, organic deposition and erosion of
sediments which resulted in hiatuses in deposition.

Durrington: 1 (1.60-1.47m)

The dominance of Betula (birch) and Pinus (pine)
in this basal zone and the increasing importance of
Quercus (oak), Ulmus (elm) and Corylus (hazel)
suggests a late Devensian to early Holocene age for
this zone. A radiocarbon date from humic acids
from a bulk sample (1.60—1.45m) of this basal peat
of 8640+200 BP (GU-3239), calibrates to 8050-
7260 cal BC using data from Kromer and Becker
(1993) with Calib 3, and indicates an early
Holocene date for peat inception. Fluctuations in
these taxa appear to follow a pattern typical of
changes in arboreal and shrub pollen known from
other sites in southern England. The relatively high
values of Betula and Pinus, the latter being
dominant, are typical of the Allerod/Windermere
interstadial with the lesser values of other arboreal
taxa (Ulmus, Quercus, and Corylus) considered as
being transported long distance.

The vegetation at the very base of this zone
comprises largely open herbaceous communities
dominated by Cyperaceae (sedges) and Gramineae
(grasses) growing in the damper valley bottom.
This may be attributable to colder conditions in the
late Devensian (c. 10,800—10,000 BP). Whether this
was a true river floodplain or a low marshy area
with perhaps periodic/seasonal outwash, which is
~ more likely, is speculative. Sharp increases in the
percentage of Betula followed by Pinus, Corylus and
Quercus are typical of the early Flandrian
succession of woody vegetation from 10,000 BP
brought about by climatic amelioration at the end
of the last cold stage. Subsequently, Pinus and then
Quercus and Ulmus with Corylus are represented as
these taxa migrated into the region. These deposits

appear to be compacted and thus sampling intervals
less than 20mm might illustrate this succession
more clearly.

Durrington: 2 (1.47-1.17m)

At 1.47m, there is a marked change in the
sediments and contained pollen spectra, indicating
a zone of erosion and marked hiatus embracing mid
Boreal to Atlantic climatic zones (Godwin’s (1975)
pollen zones V—VIIa) i.e. Mesolithic. The deposits
are peaty silts and silts which contain markedly
fewer tree and shrub pollen. Betula is only
sporadically present and Pinus although
continuously represented is regarded as ‘normal’
background pollen rain from extra regional sources.
Tilia (lime) is recorded for the first time. In
contrast, herb pollen becomes dominant (toc. 250%
AP or 95% total pollen). This comprises the
autochthonous, local floodplain community and
from the drier interfluves. The floodplain was
dominated by grasses and sedges with other fen
type plants which include Thalictrum, Caltha type
(probably including Caltha palustris/ marsh mari-
gold), Filipendula (meadowsweet), Valeriana
officinalis (valerian), and Typha/Sparganium type
(reedmace and bur-reed). Alnus (alder) is present
but in view of the very high pollen production of
this tree (Janssen 1959; Andersen 1973), it is not
considered to have been important on or near the
sample site. Non-wetland taxa include a diverse
range of herbs which are typical of Neolithic or
post-Neolithic land use subsequent to woodland
clearance.

It is clear that there is substantial evidence for
anthropogenic activity in the local area and
specifically for arable activity. Pollen of segetals
(weeds associated with arable habitats) such as
Fallopia convolvulus’ (black bindweed) and
Polygonum aviculare (knotted bindweed), Centaurea
cyanus (blue cornflower) and cereal type pollen are
typical. Of particular interest are the high
percentages of Cruciferae (Sinapis type/charlocks)
which is frequently associated with arable
agriculture. Here, however, the high percentages
are likely to be from ‘on site’ growth. A range of
herbs typical of waste or cleared ground and
pastoral habitats were also present. Typically these
include increased occurrences of Chenopodiaceae
(goosefoots and atriplexes), Papilionaceae (clovers
etc.), Rumex (docks) Plantago lanceolata (ribwort
plantain) and Plantago media/major type (hoary
plantain and greater plantain) and a range of
Compositae taxa.

232, THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

It is suggested that the sediments of this zone
started to accumulate after major forest clearance in
the area (see below). The presence of arable pollen
and weeds indicates a date post c. 4000 cal BC, i.e.
Neolithic. Pollen data spanning this period in
southern England are sparse and, where present,
usually relate to areas away from the chalk where
pollen preservation in more acid environments is
better suited to more detailed palynological
investigation. Nevertheless on the Chalk in Sussex
(Thorley 1981), Dorset (Haskins 1978; Waton 1980;
1982), Hampshire (Waton 1980; 1982) and the Isle
of Wight (Scaife 1980; 1987) partial woodland
clearance took place during the Neolithic. More
extensive clearance took place subsequently in the
Bronze Age with large areas of woodland cleared on
the lighter soils of the Chalk and Greensand. This
presents two possible interpretations for the
Durrington pollen spectra in Durrington: 2. First,
the relative absence of trees locally here, suggests a
Bronze Age (or later) date. Second, the absence of
pollen data from on or near the chalklands here
presents the possibility that a large area was cleared
of woodland at sometime during the Neolithic.
Given the archaeological, pollen and molluscan
evidence from Durrington Walls (Evans 1971) and
mollusc evidence from Woodhenge (Evans and
Jones 1979), it seems likely that zone Durrington: 2
represents continuous and _ possibly intense
Neolithic land use in this region. Furthermore, this
poses the interesting possibility that such clearance
and land use was responsible for the re-initiation of
sedimentation in the Avon valley after a hiatus of
possibly thousands of years. The removal of trees
on the interfluves makes soil available for erosion
and will have raised groundwater tables and
increased surface sediment run-off (colluviation)
into the valley bottom. This cause and effect has
now been widely demonstrated from a number of
British alluvial sites (Burrin and Scaife 1984; Scaife
and Burrin 1983; 1985; 1992) and dry chalk valleys
(Bell 1981; 1982; 1983; Allen 1988; 1992).

Durrington: 3 (1.17-0.90m)

A sherd of undiagnostic Roman pottery was
recovered at 1.15m at the base of Durrington:3,
clearly dates this zone to the Roman or post-Roman
period. Since the pottery was a small, broken
fragment, it could even have been incorporated at a
later date. If the interpretation of zone Durrington:
2 as Neolithic or Bronze Age is correct, there
appears to be a substantial hiatus between these
zones (perhaps spanning the later Bronze Age and

Iron Age). In zone Durrington: 3, tree and shrub
pollen become dominant in these fen carr peats.
High values of Alnus and Corylus in more organic
sediment and peat represent the growth of local
alder dominated carr woodland on the floodplain
here and is attested by the of ‘clusters’ of pollen
found. This appears to represent a phase of stability
in the catchment with lower water tables allowing
the growth of a drier (fen carr) woodland and an
absence of constant flooding. This phase is
mirrored by a reduction in wetland herbs (largely
Cyperaceae).

There is some evidence of other woodland
growth with Ulmus and a single record of Fraxinus
(ash). Tilia continues to be represented with a
mixture of degraded and non-degraded pollen
grains. This indicates that some lime woodland
remained on the drier areas of the river catchment.
Since Tilia produces relatively small numbers of
pollen and is insect pollinated, it is likely that it is
under-represented in the pollen spectra (Anderson
1973; Tauber 1965).

The growth of more closed carr woodland on
the Avon floodplain probably had a significant
effect in reducing pollen input from the
surrounding region on to the mire. Although
reduced in numbers, many taxa remain and
Plantago lanceolata and other typical anthropogenic
pollen types are present. Cereal pollen and
associated taxa present in the previous zone are
largely absent. This may be interpreted as a real
decrease in arable cultivation or, more likely, that
the generally poorly dispersed pollen taxa have
been ‘filtered out’ by the now substantial woodland
growing on the river floodplain, but a presence of
pasture is substantiated

The substantial hiatus between zone
Durrington: 2 and Durrington: 3 is not uncommon
in alluvial sediments (e.g. Burrin and Scaife 1984;
Scaife and Burrin 1992). The top of Durrington: 2
may have been a land surface with perhaps
seasonally waterlogged pasture on which the
Roman pottery (at 1.15m) and charcoal (at 1.12m)
was deposited. There is no visible effect of a fire on
the vegetation/pollen spectra, nor was any evidence
of pedogenesis noted in the sediments. Pedogenesis
would be arrested if the floodplain remained wet or
waterlogged.

Durrington: 4 (0.90-0.68m)

There was a return to an open floodplain
environment with the demise of alder carr. Small
numbers of Sphagnum spores may indicate localised

NEOLITHIC AND LATER PREHISTORIC LANDSCAPE OF THE AVON VALLEY 233

growth although taxa represented are likely to be
those from the less acid end of the range (eg. S.
plumulosum) and flushed habitats. It can be noted
that such a community of meadowsweet and sedges
is present today in localised areas of the River Avon
floodplain. There is also a corresponding increase
in dry land herbs and a marked increase in taxa
indicative of arable cultivation (cereal type,
Polygonaceae etc.) and ruderals (especially Plantago
spp.). Pteridium aquilinum (bracken) reaches its
highest values in this pollen profile and as such, the
whole zone is indicative of an open landscape
showing the effects of intense and widespread land
use (arable, pasture and possibly wet meadow
pasture on the floodplain) in the local area. It seems
likely that this zone is medieval, reflecting a period
of intense land use.

RELATIONSHIP OF THE
ARCHAEOLOGY TO THE
SEDIMENTS

The floodplain stratigraphy and biostratigraphical
record will reflect important human activity in the
area and especially that of the nearby monuments of
Durrington Walls (Wainwright 1971) and
Woodhenge (Evans and Wainwright 1979). Human
activity can have a profound impact on the fluvial
hydrology of river catchments (Evans 1992) and in
many cases is responsible for varying degrees of
alluviation. The sediment architecture of river
valleys show that increased erosion and
sedimentation occur in response to prehistoric
human activities such as increased agricultural
pressure (Burrin and Scaife 1988). In contrast,
during periods of interfluve soil stability caused by
woodland growth, sediment input to river systems
is absent or markedly diminished. Thus major
periods with littke human intervention in the
landscape, such as the Mesolithic, may not be
represented in the sequence. Consequently,
lithostratigraphical units, or parcels of sediments
(sensu Needham 1991) may be separated by hiatuses
spanning considerable time. On this part of the
“Avon floodplain the lower energy levels of
overbank deposition is confirmed by the semi-
organic character of the sediments, indicating im
situ deposition of organic matter on a herb rich
floodplain or wet meadow. It is clear that a number
of natural and anthropogenic factors are
responsible for the variations noted.

It is unlikely that there is a direct causal

relationship between the Durrington: 1 deposits
and the impact of the essentially hunting and
gathering communities of the Upper Palaeolithic
and very early Mesolithic periods. It is, however,
clear from other studies throughout Britain and
Europe that the initiation of organic and inorganic
sedimentation can occur at this time. Evidence for
similar late Devensian/early Flandrian conditions
has been provided by Evans (1971) at Durrington
Walls, and been noted at a number of southern
English sites (cf. Scaife 1980; 1982; 1987; Scaife and
Burrin 1992). Thus, we can see the pollen
fluctuations of Durrington: | as reflecting natural
environmental changes. The cessation of
sedimentation at the top of Durrington: 1 can be
viewed as a response to either increasing soil
stability caused by the dominance of deciduous
woodland on the interfluves, or through the drier,
continental-type climate of the Boreal period (c.
8500-6000 BC). It is, however, clear that during the
hiatus between Durrington: 1 and Durrington: 2,
essentially representing the Mesolithic period, that
there was major environmental change.

The herb dominated Durrington: 2 suggests a
Neolithic or post-Neolithic date since it is generally
accepted that cereal cultivation arrived with the
Neolithic at c. 4000 cal BC. Unfortunately we have
no absolute dates for this zone, and as such we must
compare and contrast this data set with studies of
pollen and mollusca at Durrington Walls (Evans
1971) and Woodhenge (Evans and Jones 1979) that
provide data on the local Neolithic.

The molluscan data from the pre-henge
environment at Durrington Walls shows a phase of
prehistoric woodland clearance and cultivation of
possible middie Neolithic date (Evans 1971, 335).
Pollen data (Dimbleby in Evans 1971, 334) is
superficially discordant with the molluscan
evidence in showing open vegetation dominated
not by grasses but by ferns and bracken attributed
to non-contemporaneous pollen and _ spore
assemblages. In view of the extremely low pollen
sum analysed, and the poor pollen-preserving
conditions of chalk soil, it is perhaps more relevant
to consider the molluscan evidence rather than the
impoverished pollen data from Durrington Walls.
The pollen record reveals some evidence of hazel
woodland prior to clearance and anthropogenic
activity. The open landscape postulated by Evans
compares favourably with the evidence of
Durrington: 2 noted above. This complete open-
ness of the landscape during the Neolithic can now
be regarded as unusual for this period (Allen 1997)

234 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

since many analyses (pollen and mollusca) show
that the outer fringes of chalkands remained to
some extent wooded until the Bronze Age, and
there is widespread evidence for a phase of later
Neolithic woodland regeneration (Scaife 1988;
Evans 1992). It is concluded that Durrington: 2
could easily be correlated with this extensive
evidence of Neolithic activity in the area. If so, the
pollen evidence clearly indicates the prevalence of
grassland which may be attributed to pasture, and
also cereal cropping both of which held scrub
colonisation at bay. It is likely that extensive
woodland clearance resulted in locally high water
tables, reduced evapotranspiration and increased
surface run-off, all of which contributed to the re-
initiation of sedimentation in the Avon valley.

The temporal span of zone Durrington: 2 is
unknown. It possibly spans only middle and late
Neolithic activity, although it seems more plausible
that continued land use into the Bronze Age was
maintaining conditions in which peat accumulated
on the floodplain. The major change in floodplain
vegetation from open, wet sedge fen communities to
drier alder carr is interesting since this apparently
occurred during the Roman (or post Roman)
period, representing a period of drier floodplain
conditions which allowed the succession of carr
woodland. This would indicate that the floodplain
had standing water for only two or three months of
the winter. This reverted to sedge fen but with
meadow and fen herbs dominated by Filipendula
ulmaria (Meadowsweet). This change may have
been through natural causes or by clearance of the
valley carr wood.

FOLLY BOTTOM
by Michael F. Allen

The pipeline trench traversed the large dry valley of
Folly Bottom, incised into the Middle Chalk of
Salisbury Plain to the north-west of Amesbury.
Only a shallow colluvial profile was revealed and
comprised a gravel fan in a weakly calcareous dark
silty clay matrix which overlay late Pleistocene/
Devensian Chalk meltwater deposits and sealed a
relict tree hollow containing a reddish-brown silty
clay loam.

Stratigraphy

An irregular pocket of dark, reddish-brown,
mottled silty clay loam with occasional flint
nodules was recorded beneath the colluvium, 134
(Site 8, Figure &). It contained charcoal flecks

throughout and was possibly a tree-throw hollow
which contained evidence of a relict mature palaeo-
argillic soil. It was sealed by a gravel fan comprised
of medium to large flint nodules in a dark silty loam
matrix (133) situated on the edge of the valley floor
(Allen 1992, fig. 4.3 and cf Allen 1988, fig. 6.5) and
which originated from valley side erosion. A thin
silty, stonefree calcareous layer (174) sealed the
gravel fan, but terminated downslope. This
probably represents the erosion of fine-grained
material, possibly as a slurry.

The section was carefully cleaned but no
artefacts were recovered. A series of samples was,
however, taken for molluscan analysis, but
produced very few shells; all species were typically
open country.

Discussion

The basal tree-throw hollow indicates the presence
of former argillic brown earths/brown earths and
the presence of charcoal may indicate deliberate
felling perhaps associated with the Neolithic
barrow of Longbarrow Clump on Bulford Down.
The overlying flint gravel horizon indicates high
energy erosion. Augering showed that this deposit
extended for almost 80m along the axis of the valley,
as well as down the valley side. This may, therefore,
represent the coarse channel deposit of a temporary
winterbourne, or high energy erosion down the
valley axis (Bell and Boardman 1992) This erosion
was probably responsible for truncating and
stripping out any previous, possibly prehistoric,
colluvial deposits which may have been transported
further down the valley axis. By analogy with other
colluvial deposits in Wessex (Allen 1992) it is
plausible that this belongs to the later prehistoric
period. The lack of colluvium does not therefore
necessarily represent a general lack of erosion and
long term land-use.

PART 3: EARLS FARM
DOWN (SITES 9-19)

ARCHAEOLOGICAL
BACKGROUND

The palimpsest of archaeological features on Earl’s
Farm Down (Figure 8) forms part of a wider pattern
of linear ditches and trackways of Bronze Age, Iron
Age, and Romano-British date which extends over

NEOLITHIC AND LATER PREHISTORIC LANDSCAPE OF THE AVON VALLEY 235

f__/ The Pennings

KEY

~ Route of pipeline

Wf Edge oj spoil

j_--—, y PEs
7 oR
Mo ip 75 ia
oma 4 E = Ring ditch
Edge of easement «=~

* Site (numbered)

Archaeological features

Cart ruts

(Scale for A B & C)

100
Ss sm

Site 18

Fig. 8 Location of sites of Earl’s Farm Down

much of the eastern part of Salisbury Plain and into
western Hampshire. Features known from aerial
photography include ‘Wessex linears’, defined as
lengths of ditches running long distances across
country, sometimes in pairs, often approximately
1km apart; and ‘local’ linears, which do not seem to

form part of major systems and often extend from,
and sometimes link Iron Age enclosures (Palmer
1984, 10). ‘Wessex linears’ appear to be a largely
Bronze Age phenomenon, representing large-scale
organization of the landscape.

Figure 1 shows a much-simplified version of

236 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

124.95m.0.D.

East facing

124.92m.0.D.

West facing

Mollusc sample

West facing

Mollusc sample 124.94m.0.D.

125.13m.0.D.

Key:

ee Clay loam

| | Silty loam

Chalky loam

features known from aerial survey and as
earthworks. The long linear ditch running for part of
its length parallel to the A303 is the Earl’s Farm
Down linear (Wiltshire SMR no. SU14SE745), a
Wessex linear which appears to run parallel to one to
the south (SMR no. SU14SE746). An extensive and

Silty clay loam
Chalky silt

. IP.) .
I Ashy silt oS es Worked flint

Fig. 9 Sections across ditches on Earl’s Farm Down

#4 Chalk rubble

Flint nodules

complicated field system in this area is not shown.
Earl’s Farm Down lies just outside the survey
area of the Danebury environs project (Palmer
1984, map), but the Earl’s Farm Down linear runs
into the study area for that research, where its most
easterly recorded point is just to the south of

NEOLITHIC AND LATER PREHISTORIC LANDSCAPE OF THE AVON VALLEY 237

Beacon Hill (Palmer 1984, map, SU 212 422). Earl’s
Farm Down itself lies within the study area of the
Wessex Linear Ditch Project (Bradley et al. 1994),
which used a combination of excavation, augering
and geophysical survey to investigate cropmarks in
this area. The results of this work appear to have
isolated a number of trackways, which, it is
suggested, relate to the Iron Age and Romano-
British settlement, leaving a pattern of linear
ditches which can be compared with other patterns
in the area (Bradley et al. 1994).

LATER PREHISTORIC AND
ROMANO-BRITISH FEATURES

The pipeline revealed a number of features already
known from cropmarks and recorded on the Sites
and Monuments Record to the south of the A303
and parallel to the Allington track. The cropmark
(SMR no. 5U145E742) crosses the line of the
route, but no feature was observed to correspond
with it. The most westerly feature observed was
the edge of a ring-ditch, Site 13 (Figure 8),
belonging to a known, ploughed-out disc barrow
(SMR no. 5U145E675), lying to the south-east of a
surviving barrow (SMR no. 5U145E674). The ring-
ditch lay outside the line of the pipe trench, but was
revealed by the topsoil strip. It was therefore
recorded and its exact location noted, but it was not
excavated.

The remainder of the cropmarks were exposed
along the section of pipeline running parallel to the
Allington track. A number of previously unknown
features were also identified in addition to the
cropmarks which, in some places, were obscured by
later features (Figure 8). The principal feature was
the Earl’s Farm Down linear ditch (SMR no.
5U145E745) which was sectioned (Site 15). The
cropmark evidence clearly shows a ditch bordered
by two banks, although no evidence of the banks
was seen in the excavated section (Figure 9; ditch
3). Small quantities of animal bone and Romano-
British pottery were recovered from the upper fills

and two flint flakes were recovered from the
primary fill, but there was not enough evidence to
suggest at what date the ditch originated, although
it is assumed to be of Bronze Age date on analogy
with similar features throughout Wessex. Parallel to
this major boundary ditch were two linear features,
1 on the south side and 14 on the north. Both were
undated, shallow slots (Figure 9), their function
and relationship to the Earl’s Farm Down ditch

unknown.

Leading south from the Earl’s Farm Down
linear ditch was a substantial feature, ditch 7
(Figures 8 and 9), which contained one sherd of
possible later Bronze Age pottery. Although
partially obscured by later features, including
numerous cart ruts, it was possible to discern its
alignment, which corresponds to a linear cropmark
(SMR no. 778). The fills contained small amounts
of animal bone and flint, and a sherd of probably
Late Bronze Age pottery. Two large features,
ditches or scoops, 50 and 72, are undated, but
appear to post-date ditch 7; they were both 1.5m in
depth The other major excavated feature was a V-
shaped ditch, 40 (Site i9, Figures 8 and 9),
identified as cropmark SMR no. SU14SE746. It is
600m to the south of SMR no. 5U14SE745, and
runs parallel with it. Two sherds of possibly later
Bronze Age pottery were recovered from the
primary fill with a Roman coin and sherds of Iron
Age and Roman pottery in the upper fill. A lynchet,
42, running southwards from ditch 40, appears to
coincide with cropmark SMR no. SU14SE777. The
excavated section produced two sherds of third to
fourth century Roman pottery.

OTHER FEATURES

The remainder of the archaeological features on
Earl’s Farm Down included minor ditches (Sites 8
and 18, Figure 8), the alignment of which could not
always be ascertained before trenching, as they were
usually obscured by large deposits of silty loams.
Thus they were mainly seen in section. Dating of
these features is uncertain, but is likely to include
Romano-British as well as possibly later prehistoric
features. Other sites observed on Earl’s Farm Down
comprised tracks and cart ruts, containing post-
medieval and modern finds, details of which are
contained in archive.

FINDS
by Lorraine Mepham

Just 11 sherds (73g) of pottery were recovered from
the ditches on Earl’s Farm Down. A small fragment
of a flat-topped or bevelled rim sherd in a fabric
containing abundant amounts of flint temper was
recovered frem ditch 7 (Site 16). The vessel may
date to the Late Bronze Age though the sherd is too
small to be confident of a more precise date. The
primary fill of ditch 40 (Site 19) produced two
sherds in different sandy fabrics, one fine and one

238 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

coarse, of first millennium BC date. These are very
small and have no diagnostic attributes and so
could date from the Late Bronze Age through to the
latest pre-Roman Iron Age. The upper fill of this
ditch contained rim sherds from a carinated bowl,
dated elsewhere to the fifth century BC (Cunliffe
1984, fig. 6.54-6.55).

The upper fill of ditch 40 also produced two
undated sandy fabric coarseware sherds and a tiny
fragment of first-second century samian, along with
avery worn, illegible Roman coin. Ditch 3 (Site 15),
the Earl’s Farm Down linear, produced two sherds
in a coarse sandy ware, similar to a fabric from ditch
40, from its upper fill and lynchet 42 (Site 19)
produced a sherd of fine, white New Forest colour-
coated ware and one of fine, micaceous Oxfordshire
ware, both of third to fourth century date. One body
sherd of Black Burnished ware was recovered from
a layer on Site 18.

Other finds consist of 230 generally
undiagnostic struck flints, amongst which are 19
cores and core fragments, 4 scrapers and 9 edge
retouched flakes, and a very small amount (37g) of
burnt flint.

ANIMAL BONE
by Sheila Hamilton-Dyer

Very littlke bone was recovered and only 19
fragments were scanned from three probably Late
Bronze Age ditches (ditches 3, 7 and 40). These
comprise 2 horse, 3 sheep/goat, | pig bone together
with 13 unidentified fragments from hoofed
animals. Ditch 40 (context 39) contained part of the
jaw of a small female horse. The sieved samples
contained mostly amphibian and small mammal
remains; the bones and teeth of a shrew, mouse and
voles were present. Samples from the lower fill of
ditch 3 (context 19/20) and the upper fill of ditch 40
(context 38) contained common eel (Anguilla
anguilla) vertebrae, the only fish recovered from the
assemblage.

LAND MOLLUSCA
by Michael 7. Allen and S.F. Wyles

The two large linear ditches excavated on Earl’s
Down Farm (ditches 3 and 40; figure 9) were
sampled for Mollusca by the excavator. Although
there was no dating evidence from the lower fills, it
is thought that both ditches date from the later
Bronze Age. The aims of the analysis were to
determine the environment and land use of the area

into which the ditches were cut and existed, and to
attempt to determine their function. A further aim
was to see if the environment and land use
determined by mollusc analysis was compatible
with the assumed late Bronze Age date of the
ditches.

Standard methods of molluscan analysis were
employed as outlined by Evans (1972, 44-5).
Mollusc nomenclature follows Walden (1976). The
results are given in Tables 3 and 4, and for ditch 3 as
a histogram of relative abundance with Pupilla
muscorum being calculated over and above the
remaining assemblage (see below).

Results

The assemblages from both ditches typically
comprised open country species dominated by
Pupilla muscorum, which is consistently high (over
80% of one sample). Pupilla often occurs in large
numbers and is known to have been abundant in
the area in the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age at
Durrington Walls (Evans 1971; 1972, 148), Earl’s
Farm Down (Kerney 1967), and the barrows on
King Barrow Ridge (Allen and Wyles 1994). PR
muscorum favours areas bare of vegetation such as
patches of broken ground induced by sheep grazing
on grassy chalk slopes but also the ditch micro-
environments themselves where patchy vegetation
and small actively eroding areas of bare chalky soil
may occur.

The super-abundance of this one species creates
problems in interpretation as it distorts and masks
the relative and absolute trends within the
remaining assemblage (Thomas 1985, 134). In
order to lessen the obscuring effect of a super-
abundant species histograms can be plotted in
absolute numbers but in this case the numbers of
shells were both too high and too variable. For these
reasons Pupilla was calculated as_ relative
percentages over and above the remaining
assemblage and thus the relative trends of other
species could be observed. The diagram produced
in this way for ditch 3 (Table 3) typifies the
sequence and is published in (Figure 10), while that
for ditch 40 (Table 4) is available in archive.

Both ditches have similar assemblages so are
discussed together. The assemblages, excluding
Pupilla, are typical of very open environments and
are dominated by Vallonia costata (up to 80%). The
predominance of V costata over its cogener Vv
excentrica is indicative of short-turfed grazed
downland. Trichia hispida and Helicella itala have a
constant but low presence throughout the

NEOLITHIC AND LATER PREHISTORIC LANDSCAPE OF THE AVON VALLEY 239
Table 3. Molluscs from Earl’s Farm Down ditch 3

Feature Ditch 3

Gontextey win cin enn ae 20------------ 19/20 19 18 --------------- 5/6 --------------- 4
Sample 16 1S 14 13 12 11 Os 8) 8 7 6 Si 4 3 2 1
Depth (cm) 150-160 140-150 130-140 120-130 110-120 100-110 87-100 78-87 70-78 60-70 ~—-50-60 ~—s 40-50 30-40 ~—S 20-30 -~—«*'10-20 0-10
Wt (g) 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 ©1000 815
LAND

Pomatias elegans (Miller) ] 2 - - 1 ] - 4 2 2 2 3 3 4
Cochlicopa lubrica (Miller) - - - - - 1 1 2 1 - - 3
Cochlicopa spp. 1 - 1 il 3 4 4 5 3 3 2 3 1 -
Vertigo pygmaea (Draparnaud) - - - 1 2 3 1 1 2 1 2

Vertigo moulinsiana (Dupuy). - - - - - - - - 1 - - - - - - -
Pupilla muscorum (Linnaeus) 68 99 125 73 44-98 192 570 794 741 558 259 141 114 79 60
Vallonia costata (Miller) 34 337) 162 24 13 43 98 64 79 70 76 28 28 22 14 1
Vallonia excentrica Sterki 7 14 11 2 14 52 20 46 36 24 9 9 25 20 8
Vallonia spp. - - - - - 8 7 8 6 7 6 4 - -

Punctum pygmaeum (Draparnaud) - - - - - 1 6 | 4 1 1 —

Vitrina pellucida (Miller) - - -

Nesovitrea hammonis (Strom) 2 2

Limacidae 2 2 2 - -
Ceciltoides acicula (Miller) - 1 - 2 1 2 28
Cochlodina laminata (Montagu) - 1 1 - -
Clausilia bidentata (Strom) 2 - 1 -

Candidula intersecta (Poiret) - 6 1 -
Cernuella virgata (Da Costa) - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1
Helicella wala (Linnaeus) 10 5 12 1 3 ll 17) » 40 24 22 20 16 10 19 9 4
Tnrchia hispida (Linnaeus) 11 16 23 2 4 14 52 14 24 24 14 17 1 2 -
Ananta arbustorum (Linnaeus) - - - - - - - - -

Helicigona lapicida (Linnaeus) - -

Cepaea/Ananta spp. - - - - - - - 2 - -

Taxa 7 6 6 6 6 6 9 11 10 12 11 8 9 8 9

TOTAL 132 169 234 103 69 181 432 729 989 919 709 341 205 190 131 81

assemblage. These are species also found in short-
turfed grassland. The absence of the shade-loving
catholic species often found in longer grassland,
such as Carychium tridentatum, indicates a well-
established short-turfed (trampled or grazed)
grassland, and the homogeneity of the local open
landscape. It may also suggests the absence of long
vegetation colonising the ditch itself (see Evans
1972, 322-4).

The virtual absence of shade-loving species
indicates that the ditches were cut into a pre-
existing well established open _ short-turfed
grassland. The assemblages are both specialised
and mature ones. The relatively high numbers of
shells retrieved, together with the absence of
evidence for long vegetation within the ditches,
indicate a lack of stabilisation and a constant slow
process of infilling within the ditches. The
assemblages therefore seem broadly to represent the
same general land-use throughout the history of the
- ditches although there are slight fluctuations
within the mollusc assemblages (Tables 3 and 4;
Figure 10).

Minor fluctuations within the assemblages have
been attributed to sub-zones within each ditch (see
Figure 10). These subzones, although based on the
molluscan assemblages also correspond to the
tripartite ditch fills (cf. Evans 1972, 322-8;

Limbrey 1975, 290-300; see Figure 10).

The subzones seem to reflect localised changes
in the intensity of land use, particular to grazing.
The ditches were dug into, and existed in, a short-
turfed grass downland (sub-zone 1) indicating long
established open (grazed) downland prior to their
construction. During the natural sedimentation of
the ditches, increased, or more intensive grazing
(possibly even over grazing) and the creation of
bare patches of soil (Pupilla and Pomatias) is evident
(sub-zone 2). Finally, grazing pressure is reduced
and a slightly longer grassland sward established,
but with hints of localised and _ possibly
intermittent arable activity (sub-zone 3). This
occurs from at least the medieval period and later
and may be compatible with the establishment and
use of the Romano-British field systems visible on
aerial photographs.

Conclusion

The land-use of the surrounding areas seems to be
one of open pasture throughout the history of the
ditches with a little arable activity coming in late
on. The paucity of shade-loving species from these
sequences indicates that not only had clearance
occurred some considerable time prior to ditch
infilling, but also that the grazed downland was
long established. This would therefore not be

THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

240

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NEOLITHIC AND LATER PREHISTORIC LANDSCAPE OF THE AVON VALLEY

Table 4. Molluscs from Earl’s Farm Down Ditch 40

Feature

(Contexts Sl ne iat 39
Sample 30 29 28 27
Depth (cm) 120-130 110-120 100-110 90-100
Wt (g) 1000 1000 1000 1000
LAND

Pomatias elegans (Miller) + + 3 +
Cochlicopa lubrica (Miiller) - - 2 -
Cochlicopa spp. - - 9 8
Vertigo pygmaea (Draparnaud) 1 - - -
Vertigo moulinsiana (Dupuy). - - - -
Pupilla muscorum (Linnaeus) 11 20 2S 195,
Vallonia costata (Miller) 1 6 190 369
Vallonia excentrica Sterki 4 Z 17 29
Vallonia spp. - - 12 14
Punctum pygmaeum (Draparnaud) - - - -
Vitrina pellucida (Miller) - - - 6
Nesovitrea hammonis (Strém) - - - -
Limacidae - - 3 -
Cecilioides acicula (Miller) - - - -
Cochlodina laminata (Montagu) — - - - -
Clausilia bidentata (Strom) - - - 1
Candidula intersecta (Poiret) - - - -
Cernuella virgata (Da Costa) - - - -
Helicella itala (Linnaeus) 4 4 38 44
Trichia hispida (Linnaeus) - 1 13 12
Arianta arbustorum (Linnaeus) - - - -
Helicigona lapicida (Linnaeus) - + - -
Cepaea/Arianta spp. - + - -
Taxa 5 5 8 8
TOTAL 21 33 399 678

241
Ditch 40
So Ra Soy Re eS ees Oe tet tee BR ea ane eee ee ney
26: 325) 240 93), 22-2 20, 19 18
80-90 70-80 65-70 60-65 50-60 40-50 30-40 20-30 10-20
1000 1000 822 880 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000
Ac. BRS Ae ME! gehen BIG aS je ce
3 = ’ BREACH sh Site
a She ane Le MONer SPT Sie 6B
I” mere é Av insis: Ghar 3y~, Ae) 2
289 188 110 373 597 379 389 288 313
191. 67 63 233 230 47 41° 25 19
52 19: 14 53, 57 3, 38S 28,20
ames : 15-9 ; z :
: : Ie egg, es : :
< = sf 1 2 4 s 2 =
ee : : Dig SLAW SARS ey 4
: : : : . l Sim noe one8
: 1 pe : in ge Bahan
SNe. 05 1S 28) 625) oe Sees De, eet
De een NOT ee 3h DA
: 2 : E geet. ieee A eee |
O:: TAS One Tomas * oir pio Aion rae
631 303 205 760 999 523 524 410 394

incompatible with the suggested later Bronze Age
date for these features. Certainly other landscape
studies in the area have pointed to an open landscape
with a mixture of pasture and arable land-use at this
time (Allen and Wyles 1993; 1994; Evans 1971;
Evans and Jones 1979; Entwistle 1994).

In view of some of the recent research on the
chalk downlands of southern England (Allen 1994;
1997) it is relatively unusual to record such a long
history of uninterrupted pasture and lack of tllage.
It does however, confirm suggestions made for the

_ Stonehenge area (Allen 1997). If, however, these
large linear ditches had banks on both sides then the
assemblages may represent, for instance, the grazed
grassy bank rather than an arable landscape,
through which the ditch system passed. Indeed,
recent observations (Entwistle pers. comm.)
indicate that this feature may exist as a double-
banked ditch further to the south. It is,
nevertheless, more likely that the short-turfed
grassland was much more widespread than in the

immediate vicinity.

The consistent use of the area as pasture may
indicate that this was a well established and
managed downland farm and that the ditches were
more than simple field boundaries to retain stock.
The ditches may comprise a part of Bradley’s
‘ranch boundaries’ of the Wessex Downland
(Bradley 1978, 47; Bowen 1978; Bowen and Fowler
1978; Bradley et al. 1994). Bradley suggests that the
instigation of these boundaries in the later Bronze
Age reflects either a change in the economy from a
revival of cereal farming to a greater emphasis on
livestock, or an attempt to secure a_ better
integration of arable and pasture, or a desire to
demarcate territories possibly in connection with
increased competition and even raiding (Bradley
1978, 117). These are not mutually exclusive
hypotheses. If agro-pastoral integration was one of
the objectives then it is likely that arable areas were
not adjacent to both the ditches.

242 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

PART 4: DISCUSSION
by Michael 7. Allen and Rosamund
M.F. Cleal

The investigations conducted along the pipeline are
individually not necessarily of great importance,
excepting the pollen sequence from the Avon
Valley. Nevertheless, the intervention provides a
‘sample slice’ of chalk landscape (cf. Allen and
Powell 1996) essentially avoiding all major
archaeological sites and features that might
normally be investigated within a_ research
programme. This rather arbitrary selection of sites
provides an opportunity to review the non-
monumental nature of, especially, the Neolithic to
Bronze Age periods north of Amesbury.

ENVIRONMENT AND

ECONOMY
by Michael Ff. Allen

The pollen analysis of the Avon Valley deposits has
undoubtedly produced a major prehistoric
sequence, the full interpretation of which is limited
by the lack of a series of radiocarbon dates.
Nevertheless, the data provided by this analysis
combined with molluscan evidence from a number
of sites in the region make a_ significant
contribution to our understanding of the activities
of past populations on the Amesbury downland.

Mesolithic

The undated pollen spectrum from the Avon Valley
at Durrington produced a major early Holocene
sequence. Apart from depicting a typical but short
late glacial sequence it provides the basis for
understanding the development of the river valley
floodplain and, therefore, the potential for human
activity within and adjacent to the floodplain.
Without dating for the pollen sequence, however,
no detailed archaeological commentary is possible
to augment this information — palynological
investigation of the Upper Palaeolithic and
Mesolithic periods is therefore in archive.
Needless to say, the valley was an important
topographic feature of the environment in all
periods, acting as a communication route (either
on water or within the valley), providing access to
water, and to local riverbank and floodplain
vegetation, including resources for food, shelter,
fire-making and the like.

The pollen sequence spanning the Upper
Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods does not seem
to show any direct anthropogenic intrusion into the
natural vegetation sequence, but there are defined
vegetation fluctuations within this zone. The lack
of such activity is confirmed, to some extent, by
both the presence of assumed Mesolithic woodland,
as evidenced by the mollusca at Durrington Walls
(Evans 1971) and Woodhenge (Evans and Jones
1979), and also by the lack of Mesolithic elements
in the large flint assemblages from Durrington
Walls (Wainwright and Longworth 1971) and from
the Stonehenge Environs Project as a whole
(Richards 1990; Cleal et al. 1995). Contrary to this,
there are indications at Stonehenge that localised
clearance occurred in the Mesolithic (Scaife 1995;
Allen 1995). A pit and postholes from the
Stonehenge car park all produced pine charcoal
with Mesolithic radiocarbon dates (Vatcher and
Vatcher 1973; Allen 1994; 1995), and gave rise to
indications of more formal activity in the
Mesolithic period (Allen and Gardiner 2002).
Further clearance is also recorded about 16km
north-west at Strawberry Hill, West Lavington
(Hedges et al. 1992; Allen 1994). Similar evidence
has not yet been forthcoming from the Downs
around Amesbury, though it has been observed
elsewhere in southern England (Allen and
Gardiner 2002; Allen 2002).

Neolithic

The pollen sequence from the valley indicates a
major hiatus and Scaife suggests that the later
Mesolithic and earlier Neolithic sedimentary
elements were lost through erosion. Although the
pollen sequence remains undated, Scaife argues
that the inception of a cleared and tilled landscape
could be of Neolithic to Bronze Age date. We might,
however, envisage this as mid to later Neolithic
activity, in view of the significant molluscan
evidence from nearby monuments and the general
reconstructions of the landscape suggested by Allen
(1997). Molluscan evidence for widespread
clearance in the earlier-middle Neolithic includes
that from the pre-bank occupation at Durrington
Walls (associated with earlier Neolithic Windmill
Hill pottery with radiocarbon dates from charcoal
mainly between 3500 and 3000 cal BC (Allen 1997,
fig. 2)), and the buried soil at Stonehenge (Allen
1997). These examples indicate that open
established grassland conditions and arable land
existed in the middle Neolithic. Similar evidence
includes the later Neolithic molluscan faunas from

NEOLITHIC AND LATER PREHISTORIC LANDSCAPE OF THE AVON VALLEY 243

the buried soils and ditches of barrows on the King
Barrow Ridge (Allen and Wyles 1994), colluvium
and a pit at Figheldean (Allen and Wyles 1993), the
ditch at Woodhenge (Evans and Jones 1979) and the
results of the Stonehenge Environs Project (Allen et
al. 1990). These data show that fairly large tracts of
land were cleared in the Early Neolithic, and that
by the later Neolithic the area was a largely cleared
landscape (cf Allen er al. 1990, fig. 154; Allen 1997,
plates 3 and 4). This process probably followed
initial localised clearance on the downland, but
evidently not in the Avon valley.

Bronze Age
During the Bronze Age the Stonehenge environs
existed as a large area of pasture and fields with
large-scale woodland clearance. Molluscan
evidence from the Figheldean ring-ditch supports
this view and indicates highly xerophilous (i.e.
open dry) conditions exemplified by the record of
Truncatellina cylindrica, a species now extinct in
Wiltshire (Evans 1972, 140), from the Bronze Age
ditch fills. This rare species has been recorded
particularly in the Durrington locality in the third
and early second millennia BC. It occurred in the
middle to Late Neolithic pre-bank soil at
Durrington Walls (Evans 1971) and Woodhenge
(Evans and Jones 1971), Neolithic fills of the
Stonehenge Cursus (Allen 1997), the later Neolithic
buried soil beneath the King Barrows (Allen and
Wyles 1994) and buried soil beneath the Bronze
Age barrows on Earl’s Farm Down (Kerney 1964;
1967) and Boscombe Down (Kennard and
Woodward 1931). Occurrence of the species is seen
to be both spatially and temporally controlled. It
was not recorded within the Stonehenge Environs
Project (Allen et al. 1990), Stonehenge ditch (Evans
1984) or Wilsford Shaft (Bell 1991) and may
indicate long term, well established clearance. The
existence of a large area of established open
downland covering King Barrow Ridge -
Figheldean — Boscombe Down, in at least the early
second millennium suggests initial clearance and
-establishment of open downland prior to this (i.e.
earlier-middle Neolithic). Perhaps this open
landscape is recorded in the Avon Valley pollen
diagram (Durrington: 2). This long established
open landscape may also provide the opportunity
for large-scale erosion from open downland,
resulting in the truncation of early deposits in the
local valleys and the deposition of coarse gravel fans
(e.g. at Folly Bottom). Truncation of the original
soils from these locations may have occurred as

early as the middle Neolithic, when, it is argued,
the inception of larger-scale clearance ocurred
(Allen 1997).

By the later Bronze Age this open, well-
established, landscape was extensively farmed, sub-
divided and defined by the linear ditch systems
(Earls Farm Down; Bradley et al. 1994). These
boundaries may also have separated different land-
uses as well as demarcating ownership or territorial
rights.

Romano-British

Localised alder carr in the Avon valley floodplain
suggests that it was drier than previously, thus
enabling woody vegetation to develop. Exploitation
of the area seems to have been focused on the
surrounding downland. It is only in the medieval
period that the use of the floodplain itself for
grazing or agriculture became established, being
dry at this period.

CONCLUSIONS
by Rosamund M.7. Cleal

There is little archaeological evidence for activity
in the vicinity of Durrington Walls before the
Neolithic. In the earlier Neolithic there was
unenclosed occupation on the high ground to the
west of the river in the area later occupied by
Durrington Walls and Woodhenge, and a long
barrow at Longbarrow Clump, to the east of the
river (Figure 1). The extent and nature of this early
settlement is largely unknown, as the evidence
survives only beneath the extant banks of the two
later Neolithic henge monuments and as
redeposited material within the later Neolithic
assemblages. The pre-bank occupation at
Durrington Walls has been dated by three
radiocarbon determinations, calibrated to the
second half of the fourth millennium BC (3500-
3000 cal BC; Richards 1990, fig. 156). The material
from Woodhenge does not have any associated
radiocarbon determination, but is likely to be of
similar date.

Whether the earlier Neolithic pottery from
these contexts represents long term use of the area,
or episodic use over half a millennium or more, it is
this earlier Neolithic occupation which has been
tentatively associated with woodland clearance,
indicated by the molluscan evidence from beneath
the northern sector of the bank at Durrington Walls
(Evans 1971). A long period of open conditions in
the area is also attested by the molluscs from

244 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

Woodhenge, where there is evidence for open
country before the construction of the bank and
throughout the secondary fill of the ditch.

The large, well-known henge monument of
Durrington Walls appears to have been in use in the
period c. 2800-2100 cal BC, while that of the
neighbouring Woodhenge probably falls within the
second half of the third millennium (2500-2000 cal
BC; Burleigh et al. 1972; Evans and Wainwright,
1979; Richards 1990, table 137 and fig. 156). Other
activity within the area is indicated by the
following:

e Four pits and a probably later Neolithic ditch at
Larkhill Married Quarters (Wainwright 1971),
immediately south-west of Durrington Walls,
containing Grooved Ware, struck flint, bone
artefacts, animal bone and a single limpet shell.

e Structure A: 19 pits or postholes covering an area
approximately 18m by 11m, 64m to the south of the
henge bank excavated during the main campaign of
excavations Durrington Walls in 1966-7
(Wainwright and Longworth 1971, 44—7).

e Structure B: a shallow ditch terminal, which cut an
artificial hollow, produced plain body sherds and
fragments probably of later Neolithic date from its
upper fill. It was interpreted as possibly part of a ring-
ditch similar to those excavated by Mrs Cunnington
to the south (Wainwright and Longworth 1971, 47).

e Four pits in the garden of Woodlands, 274m to the
south-east of the centre of Woodhenge, which
contained Grooved Ware, struck flint, part of a Graig
Lwyd axe (Group VII), bone artefacts and animal
bone, antler, and marine shells (Wainwright and
Longworth 1971, 48).

e Three small Grooved Ware sherds found with a
cremation in a pit within the ring-ditch Circle 2,
south of Woodhenge. The ring-ditch, which is
interpreted as one of four ploughed-out barrows,
appeared to cut a rectilinear setting of stakeholes
(Cunnington 1929; Wainwright and Longworth
1971, 3). Grooved Ware was also recovered from the
ditches of Circles 3 and 4 (Cunnington 1929).

e A series of small flint mines was discovered to the
north-east of Durrington Walls during trenching
operations through the gardens of the houses to the
north of Larkhill Road. Three shallow pits and three
pit-shafts were recorded. The flint was of poor quality
and extraction was abandoned, presumably fairly
quickly. A chisel arrowhead of Clarke’s type D
(Clarke 1934) lay on the base of pit-shaft 5, indicating
a later Neolithic date for the pits (Booth and Stone
1952).

¢ Grooved Ware was found redeposited in Ditch A, a
ditch almost certainly of Middle Bronze Age date
immediately to the east of the Packway enclosure
(Wainwright and Longworth 1971, 310).

e Four plain sherds of Grooved Ware recovered at
Totterdown from spoil thrown out from a pit that
contained a crouched skeleton (Wainwright and
Longworth 1971, 293).

Further afield, approximately 1.6km to the
south-east of Woodhenge, Grooved Ware was
recovered from Ratfyn, Amesbury. Excavation
revealed four pits, three of which were considered
to be contemporaneous. Only one pit contained
pottery, and also a total of 519 flints, a scallop shell,
and the bones of red deer, roebuck, cattle and pig. It
is also notable for a single brown bear scapula
(Stone 1935). A recent radiocarbon date indicates
that deposition of the material was probably
contemporary with the latest use of Woodhenge,
rather than with the main use of Durrington Walls,
as its calibrated range lies around the turn of the
third millennium cal BC (see Allen 1997).

The Amesbury area is well-known for its
Neolithic monuments and, to some extent, also for
smaller sites such as the pits at Woodlands, the type
site for the Woodlands sub-style of Grooved Ware
(Wainwright and Longworth 1971) and at Ratfyn.
The known sites have been, on the one hand,
obvious and large (Durrington Walls, Woodhenge),
or small and unrecognised until found fortuitously
(the pits at Larkhill Married Quarters, Woodlands,
Ratfyn) and because of this it has been difficult to
gauge the density of smaller sites. To some extent
the construction of the pipeline has helped to
establish the density of Neolithic sites within the
area, in that it provided a swathe of stripped surface
over 5km long which was subject to professional
archaeological observation.

The results have added considerably to the
known pattern in that they suggest a more
widespread use of the area to the north and north-
west of Durrington Walls than was previously
attested, while the lack of sites in the river valley
suggests that the lower ground may not have been
occupied on the same scale. There was little
alluvium exposed within the pipeline easement, but
elsewhere in the valley it is possible that alluvium
masks Neolithic material. That the lack of sites can
be attributed to wet conditions during the
Neolithic is also unlikely to be correct, as peat
formation was very limited within the pipeline
trench, and it seems likely that much of the valley

NEOLITHIC AND LATER PREHISTORIC LANDSCAPE OF THE AVON VALLEY 245

floor would have been available for use during at
least spring to autunm for each year. On the higher
ground to the east of the river the lack of recorded
Neolithic sites is presumably due in part to
intensive later activity and the limited size of the
sample. The absence of any isolated pits, which
unlike surface sites are likely to have escaped
complete destruction, is likely to represent a lesser
density of sites in the Neolithic than in the area
around Durrington Walls. It is perhaps of
particular interest that no Neolithic features were
noted where the pipeline passed close to the long
barrow at Longbarrow Clump.

It is clear, therefore, that the evidence from the
pipeline fits well into the known pattern, but also
fills out the picture in some areas. The occurrence
of occupation north of Durrington Walls, suggested
by the residual material found during Wainwright’s
excavations in Ditch A, is confirmed, and the use of
the area to the north of the river meander and south
of the abortive flint mines is attested for the first
time. The flint artefacts from this area, however, do
not include any material obviously from the flint
mines. Indeed the single piece of gravel flint (pit
184, Harding, above) indicates that raw material
from the river valley was being utilised.

The nature of activity represented by the
features excavated along the route of the pipeline is
more difficult to identify, but they seem to be part
of a local concentration of sites focused on the river
valley rather than simply on the henge monuments.
The occurrence of beaver in pit 165, and the similar
occurrence at Durrington Walls (minimum of one
individual, Harcourt 1971, 338) suggest, as might
reasonably be expected, that the river valley was
exploited, and this is also borne out by the
occurrence of chub, a freshwater fish, at Ratfyn
(Jackson 1935, 301). Without a firm date for the
intensive agricultural activity suggested by pollen
zone Durrington:2 it is difficult to be confident
about the nature of the contemporary landscape.
The molluscan evidence from Durrington Walls
and Woodhenge indicates strongly that there was
well-established open grassland in the immediate

vicinity of the monuments, but the wider picture is
still unclear. Some woodiand or scrub is likely to
have survived, perhaps along the slopes of the river
valley, as hazel, hawthorn, ash and oak charcoal
were identified at Ratfyn and Durrington Walls.
Beech was also present at Durrington Walls, and
the majority of structural timbers appear to have
been oak, requiring a very large quantity of that
timber to construct the Northern and Southern

Circles. The excavators suggest that this might have
been obtained from the Vale of Pewsey to the north,
with the felled trees transported along the river
(Wainwright and Longworth 1971, 222-3).

Although the results of the pipeline
observations and excavations have been on a small-
scale in terms of the Neolithic finds, observation of
the pipeline provided a valuable opportunity to
assess the likely spread of Neolithic activity within
the environs of the two major later Neolithic
monuments. The environmental evidence is of
particular importance and the necessity of dating
the intensive agricultural activity of Durrington: 2
is clearly a priority. If this should prove to be of
later Neolithic or earlier date, as suggested here, it
would radically alter the prevailing view of the area
at that period, and indeed of the type of occupation
generally associated with the users of Grooved
Ware, for which there is little evidence of cereal
cultivation. If, on the other hand, it should prove to
be of Bronze Age date, it would fit the known
settlement of the area attested by the ‘egg-shaped’
Middle Bronze Age enclosure excavated by
Cunnington (1929), which appears to lie within an
area of more extensive activity (Richards 1990, 279;
Stone et al. 1954, 164-6).

The palimpsest of features along the eastern
length of the pipeline is difficult to interpret. The
section cut through the main Earl’s Farm Down
linear (ditch 3) has neither proved nor disproved
the presumed later Bronze Age dating of this
feature, as only two flint flakes were recovered from
the primary fill. But the small sherd of later Bronze
Age pottery found in the primary fill of the ditch
running south from the Earl’s Farm Down linear
(ditch 7), and the lack of Romano-British pottery in
the lower fill, seems to indicate that this ditch at
least may date to the early first millennium BC.
This is in contrast to the results of the Wessex
Linear Ditches Project, which classify this
cropmark as a ‘trackway (confirmed) (Bradley et al.
1994). Environmental data from the linear ditches,
however, has provided a useful picture of the likely
landscape during the life of ditches 3 and 40. The
long history of pasture and lack of arable suggested
by this forms a useful contribution to our
knowledge of the area in later prehistory.

Acknowledgements

Wessex Archaeology would like to thank Wessex
Water Engineering Services Ltd for their assistance

246 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

and financial support, in particular Jim Stables and
Ted Olney. The co-operation of the landowners, of
Amey Construction, Avron Construction and
Raymond Brown Ltd was also much appreciated
during both the excavations and the watching brief.
The authors would also like to thank Helena Cave-
Penney of the Archaeology Section of Wiltshire
County Council’s Library and Museum Service, for
providing archaeological background information.
Fieldwork was carried out by Neil Adams, Phil
Harding and Julie Lancley. Augering was carried
out by Mike Allen and Rob Scaife, assisted by Sarah
Wyles. The project was managed by Caron Newman
and, latterly, by Julie Gardiner. Illustrations are by
S.E. James and Linda Coleman. The archive has
been deposited with the Salisbury and South
Wiltshire Museum, Salisbury.

Note

A draft of this paper was completed in 1994. It was
revised for publication in 2003.

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SCAIFE, R.G. and BURRIN, PJ., 1985. The
environmental impact of prehistoric man as recorded
in the Upper Cuckmere valley at Stream Farm,

Chiddingly, Sussex Archaeological Collections 123, 27-34

SCAIFE, R.G. and BURRIN, PJ., 1992. Archaeological
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Macklin, A. (eds), Archaeology under Alluvium.
London, 75-91

SMITH, I.F, 1965. Windmill Hill and Avebury. Excavations
by Alexander Keiller. Oxford: Clarendon Press

STACE, C., 1991. New flora of the British Isles. Cambridge:
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STAINES, B.W., 1991. Red deer. In Corbet, G.B. and
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Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History Magazine, vol. 97 (2004), pp. 249-254

Wiltshire and Other Things in Common:
Sir Peter Scott CH CBE DSC FRS (1909-1989)
and Bernard Venables MBE (1907-2001)

by Brian Edwards

The Wiltshire associations of two well known twentieth-century artists and environmentalists are explored and illustrated.

Wiltshire is not a place that springs to mind
alongside the names of Peter Scott and Bernard
Venables. Both were outstanding individuals,
widely respected for many things beyond their
foremost international reputations as artists. As
well known conservationists and writers, they
influenced generations of countryside enthusiasts
and lovers of natural history; but they each had
‘ many achievements besides.

Renowned for founding the Wildfowl and
Wetlands Trust and instrumental in founding the
World Wide Fund for Nature, Scott was of course
famously the son of the ill-fated polar explorer
Captain Scott. He also won the DSC as a wartime
gunboat commander, gained an Olympic Bronze
medal for single-handed dinghy sailing, was
skipper of an America’s Cup yacht, and became a
British Open Gliding Champion and a competition
ice skater. Scott’s writings, radio broadcasts and
television programmes made him a household
name that was inevitably linked with Slimbridge
where he established the Wildfowl and Wetlands
‘Trust in 1946.

Venables, like Scott, was an avid schoolboy
angler who had also gratuitously graduated from
the time-honoured traditional self-taught school
of stick, string, and pin. Primarily recalled as
author-illustrator of the most widely influential
best selling angling book of all time, Mr Crabtree
Goes Fishing, Bernard Venables has been described

without exaggeration as an adventurer and with
genuine diastrophic esteem as the ‘Venerable
Venables’. It seems quite incredible to reflect upon
Venables continuing to either fish, paint or sculpt
— and some times enjoying all three activities —
each day of the week at the age of 93. But it is even
more extraordinary to learn that at an age when
most had accepted state retirement and sought the
fireside and slippers, his enthusiasm for David
Livingstone’s explorations saw Venables
undertake, partly on foot, a hazardous 1,200 mile
trek down the Zambezi from its Congo source to
Mozambique.

A leading conservationist in the movement
backed by the Anglers’ Co-operative Association to
clean up Britain’s polluted waterways, Venables
could also look back on being the record holder of
the largest rod-caught shark, hooked in 1959, and
experiencing two seasons in small open boats
whaling with the hand-held harpoons of the Fayal
Islanders in the Azores. If this doesn’t appear a
comfortable apposition alongside the idea of
conservation, it might also be recalled that Peter
Scott was a ferreter and wildfowler in younger days
and, while punting with Dick and Tim Maurice (of
the ‘Marlborough Doctors’) at Manton, perfected
the capture of Graylings by striking them harpoon-
style with the pole.

Venables and Scott were not’ only
contemporaries of similar age, but they were also

Mount Pleasant, The Cartway, Wedhampton, Devizes SN10 3QD

250 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

ALL RIGHT, PETER, WE'LL BE
ALL— THE — YEAR ~ ROUND

FISHERMEN /— WELL START

RIGHT NOW IN JANUARY
AND SEE IF WE CAN'T GET

a AS GOOD FISHING IN
WINTER AS

SUMMER |

| Pruars IT, PETER,
| SINK THE NET
| WELL. FLL DRAW

| THE FISH OVER IT ||

| THEN LIFT HIM

QUIETLY OUT. 4

Yi | FROM ‘A DACE. IN THE DACE
\ THE EDGE 1S CONCAVE

7 | WITH HIS HEAD UP |
| STREAM. ALWAYS HAVE

WET HANDS TO HANOLE
A LIVE FISH—!IT HELPS

| YOU NOT TO DISLODGE

THEIR SCALES OR

The opening strip of Mr Crabtree Goes Fishing 1949 (top left) and self portrait by Bernard Venables c 1990s (top right). ‘The
Crabtree’s First Chub’ (bottom) is typical of the countryside care, conservation, and natural history intertwined with the technical ~

children when their fathers died and were
influenced subsequently by artistic near relatives.
Venables’ grandfather was an accomplished artist
and Scott’s mother a professional sculptor. As if it
were not enough for Scott to have been born of one

detail in the strip.

Isadora Duncan,

famous parent, let alone a nationally acclaimed
hero, his mother Kathleen was descended from
Robert the Bruce, and was friends with such as
T.E.Lawrence, and George
Bernard Shaw in addition to a host of politicians

WILTSHIRE AND OTHER THINGS IN COMMON 211

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‘The Natural World of Man’ (top), an unusual but succinct
work by Scott showing threatened wildlife on the one hand
and pollutive industrialization on the other. Self portrait with
Lady Philippa and friends (bottom left). Map by the young
Peter Scott showing the natural history of the area sur-
rounding his stepfather’s cottage, the Lacket (bottom right).

252 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

prior to her marriage, when Peter was 13, to Edward
Hilton Young who was to become a cabinet minister
and later Lord Kennet.

It was at his stepfather’s Wiltshire cottage, The
Lacket, in the Kennet Valley village of Lockeridge,
described by Scott as the ‘one of the most perfect
thatched cottages I have ever seen’, that the
teenaged Peter’ recalled painting flowers
[meticulously] in watercolours as his stepfather, a
patient bird watcher, read aloud to him each
evening.

It nestles amid ancient yews; and across from the
cottage there is a gentle slope of fields to the West
Woods. These woods were our particular delight, and
we had our own names for all the places in them,
which we marked on our own special six-inch-to-the-
mile map — Archer’s Dene, Brock Dene, Peached
valley, Mole Joke. Often we used to walk far over the
Downs and into Savernake Forest. Always on these
walks I would collect wild flowers and bring them
home... Finally I had quite a complete collection of
small drawings of the common wild flowers that grew

around The Lacket. I always found being read aloud
to an excellent stimulus to my drawing.

Scott had his first drawing published, a privet
hawk moth, aged just 13. But while Wiltshire
influenced the young Peter Scott, Venables did not
move to the Wiltshire-Berkshire borders, and
finally Upavon in Wiltshire, until later life, despite
being drawn since 1940 by a fascination for the
River Kennet. During the war Venables’ skill as an
artist saw him deployed by several government
ministries, drawing tanks and aircraft for
propaganda purposes. In 1946 he joined the Daily
Miurror in which his famous cartoon strip character
‘Mr Crabtree’ first appeared, as a gardener, in 1947
— not long before Venables inevitably suggested
when winter prevented work in the garden Mr
Crabtree should go fishing. The daily strips in
which Mr Crabtree taught his son Peter to fish in all
conditions were compiled into a book in 1949 that
was an instant best seller. Informed by some of the
most glorious watercolours of British freshwater
fish ever published, post-war generations were

‘Rudd’ by Bernard Venables watercolour 15 x 12 inches — one of a series of 31 started in 1946 in a return to the colours and
posture of Victorian natural history prints.

WILTSHIRE AND OTHER THINGS IN COMMON 253

‘Upavon’ by Bernard Venables 1994 watercolour 25.5 x 19 inches.

taught not just angling but waterlife and bankside
etiquette by the Crabtrees and another couple Mr
Cherry and Fim. In 1953 Venables co-founded the
Angling Times and ten years later founded a
sophisticated country magazine titled Creel.

Scott’s angling stories include catching and
despatching to London Zoo’s aquarium some
exceptionally large Perch, weighing 2 lb. 10 oz. and
3 Ib. 2 oz. respectively, and making detailed
drawings of Roach-Rudd and Rudd-Bream hybrids
that he sent to Dr Tate Regan at the Natural History
Museum. Egg collecting and moth catching also
feature; as does, of all things, catching a baby
badger in an umbrella so that he could examine it.
Scott revealed this to be the only badger he had seen
in a radio broadcast in 1939, until he returned to
Wiltshire to night-watch with a friend in woods
near Hungerford and Marlborough. The same year
Bernard Venables was first mesmerized by the trout
swimming in the sparkling waters of the Kennet at
Hungerford.

Compared side by side, pencil portraits by Scott
and Venables show a remarkable similarity in easy,

light, effective use of the pencil; while the ink-
drawn map key to creatures and plants encountered
within walking distance of The Lacket produced by
the young Scott shows the same explicit projection
of form that Venables’ superb illustrations of active
fish brought to the tales of Mr Crabtree and Mr
Cherry. Their watercolours of country scenes also
show similarities in use of colour bringing
backgrounds to life, involving the onlooker in the
natural scene before them. Rare examples of their
late artwork can also be found to be similar,
strikingly symbolic scenes conveying meaning
beyond the dimensions of their more familiar work.
Above all other things in common, both Scott and
Venables can be seen as inspiring multitudes in
enjoying and respecting the natural world through
mediums that appeal beyond the academy. Despite
ascending that plane these intuitive natural
historians instinctively encouraged others, and in
doing so spread knowledge and wisdom along with
their enthusiasm. Were one word required to
epitomise a common thread in the legacy of Scott
and Venables’ work in natural history, it would

254 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

‘Common Eel’ by Bernard Venables

perhaps be ‘look’. Whether it was Scott capturing
the time of day through the flight of birds or
Venables portraying a season through a river scene,
these great artists brought us to the spot; to see what
happened beneath and above the surface of rather
more than just the water. Peter Scott, of course, aptly
called his BBC television series Look, but he and
Venables encouraged the many to also see and do.

Source material

The author’s interviews, conversations and corres-
pondence with Bernard Venables 1999-2000.

COURTNEY, Julia, 1989, Peter Scott. Watford: Exley

SCOTT, Peter, 1966, The Eye of the Wind: an Auto-
biography. London: Hodder and Stoughton

SCOTT, Peter, 1967, Happy the Man: Episodes in an
exciting life. (Nigel Sitwell ed.) London: Sphere

VENABLES, Bernard, 1993, The Illustrated Memoirs of a

Fisherman. Ludlow: Merlin Unwin

VENABLES, Bernard, 1949, Mr Crabtree Goes Fishing .
London: Daily Mirror

VENABLES, Bernard, 1968, Baleia! the Whalers of the
Azores. London: Bodley Head and Knopf

Picture credits

Mr Crabtree Goes Fishing by kind permission of the
Mirror.

Paintings by Peter Scott by kind permission of Lady
Philippa Scott.

Paintings and a self portrait by Bernard Venables by kind
permission of Eileen Venables, who wishes it to be
known that she is the sole copyright holder of all
works by Bernard Venables other than Mr Crabtree
which is owned by the Mirror. Original artwork and
prints by Bernard Venables are available through the
shop at the Wiltshire Heritage Museum.

Map by Scott, Wiltshire Heritage Museum and Library.

Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History Magazine, vol. 97 (2004), pp. 255-272

The Wiltshire Wildlife Trust’s Vera Jeans Nature
Reserve at Jones’s Mill, Pewsey
by Beverley Heath! with contributions by other authors

There was a mill until the fourteenth century. Eighteenth-century floated water meadows were abandoned in the
nineteenth. The vale is greensand over clay. Low-lying land, watered by springs rising from nearby chalk through
greensand and peat, has scarce fen and carr communities with a mosaic of calcicoles and calcifuges. They are
maintained by summer grazing. Wet flushes are also valuable habitats. Much less interesting formerly improved fields
on the northern slopes are recovering under sympathetic management. Grass-heath restoration is planned for the

southern slopes. Various groups of fauna are described.

HISTORY

Very probably our Jones’s Mill was one of the seven
at Pewsey held by the church and paying £4 5s at
the time of the Domesday survey (Thorn and
Thorn, 1979, 10:67c). They would have stood on
the Salisbury Avon, which flows through the heart
of the reserve. Details of the site’s history are set out
in a paper commissioned by the Trust (Chandler,
1999). The earliest known reference to the mill by
name is in 1359, when an inquisition post mortem lists
a water mill named ‘Jonesmulle’ among the
possessions of one Anastasia de Harden. This is
almost certainly the one described in her father’s
inquisition in 1330: a water mill in Pewsey worth ten
shillings a year held from the Abbot of Hyde. The
mill was abandoned probably sometime in the
fourteenth century, but the name Jones persisted,
attached to various meadows and woods on the site.
An estate map of c.1811 names the meadow just
north-east of the main bridge over the Avon as
Jones’s Mill Mead (see map), a name also
mentioned in a 1756 property list.

In one field in the north of the reserve, ridge and
furrow is still discernible — evidence of a medieval

open field system (Wiltshire County Council
Archaeclogy Service, undated). When the mill was
abandoned it is likely that the land along the river
reverted to marsh. By the mid-eighteenth century
these marshes were converted to ‘floated’ water
meadows. Kerridge (1953) describes the Wiltshire
water meadows in detail. The usual procedure was
to build a sluice upstream of the meadow to feed
water into leats constructed parallel to the river but
which ran higher up the valley slope. Between these
and the river, and perpendicular to them, successive
ridges were constructed about ten metres apart with
their tops at the same height as the leat. Along these
ran ducts, ‘carriages’, fed by the leats, and in the
hollows between them were drainage channels,
‘drawns’ (sic), running down to the river. The
elaborate structure of the meadows was expensive
to create and maintain, but the rewards made it
worthwhile. Controlled flooding both enriched the
soil and kept it warmer at night and thus promoted
vigorous early grass. This in turn allowed more
sheep to be kept. Sheep were of crucial importance
to the rural economy: for meat and wool, of course,
but above all for their dung that was used to fertilise
the arable fields.

At Jones’s Mill the water for the leats was

augmented — possibly even entirely supplied — by

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256 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

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THE WILTSHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST’S VERA JEANS NATURE RESERVE 257

springs and tributary streams rather than the more
usual dams on the river. The temperature of spring
water is very constant so in cold weather it did not
just blanket the soil but actively warmed it.
Another unusual feature of the meadows is that in
Jones’s Mill Mead the carriages and drawns run
parallel to the river. The Jones’s Mill water
meadows as such fell into disuse probably
sometime in the nineteenth century, though there is
a local memory of controlled flooding up to the
First World War (Wall, 1999). Even so, the land was
still used for occasional grazing of cattle. The ridges
are still up to 20 centimetres above the troughs and
stand out well in the patterns of vegetation.

Hidden just below ground level is a hard-core
track across the fen along the eastern edge of Jones
Mill Mead. This may be part of an ancient track,
Kepnal Drove, which ran from Kepnal along what
is now Dursden Lane, down the existing green lane
and across the site and possibly on to Sunnyhill
Lane and up to Martinsell. It was blocked in 1808
when this part of the Kennet and Avon Canal was
built. There are no rights of way on the reserve, but
there are permissive paths.

An estate map of 1811 shows a ‘Strip by Pond’
but not the pond itself. It looks as if the pond could
have been where the Avon runs through the present
carr (woodland on water-logged soil). The same
map marks another part of the carr as ‘Alder Bed’.
At the north-east end of the reserve [1 on the inset
Fen & Carr map], watercress beds, fed by springs,
were in use serving the London market until just
after the Second World War (Wall, 1999). All that
remains of these old beds is a mire with a stream
flowing through it and a line of diverse, exotic trees
along its western edge, probably planted to protect
the beds from frost. A dam, reconstructed in 1990,
diverts part of this stream into the leat that supplies
water to the north-eastern third of the water
meadows.

At times, probably in the 1940s and 1950s, the
old water meadows were deliberately burnt off to
promote fresh growth — ‘It would be green again in
about a week’ (Wall, 1999).
~ In 1975 the Jeans family, who owned the land
from 1905, leased the old water meadows that form
the core of the reserve to the Wiltshire Trust for
Nature Conservation (now the Wiltshire Wildlife
Trust). Miss Vera Jeans loved the old water
meadows and to ensure their long-term protection
she gave them to the Trust in 1980, on condition
that they be kept as marshy areas. Their current
plant community is in a transient stage in a

succession which, without active management,
would ultimately become woodland. To preserve
this rare and valuable habitat, water levels have to
be maintained and the taller, ranker vegetation kept
under control either by annual cutting or, better, by
summer grazing with cattle. In order to be able to
control the water levels, some of the leats were
restored by the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust in 1987.
When the meadows were in working order, the
runnels leading out from the leats on to the ridges
were blocked by removable boards, now long-since
gone. A fine sandy silt had accumulated where they
had been and, when the banks of the leats were
restored, these silt patches remained in place. The
effect was that alongside the tops of the old ridges
there are now porous spots through which water
continuously seeps, thus, probably as much by good
fortune as design, keeping the water table on the fen
at the optimum level. With the aid of local
donations and two substantial grants from the
Heritage Lottery Fund towards both purchase and
maintenance, the Trust bought many of the
surrounding fields during the 1990s, to protect the
water meadows, and to enable the small herd of
Belted Galloway cattle that graze them during the
summer to be kept on the reserve throughout the
year. The southern part of this was a large arable
field, now under grass. This has become known as
Big Forty — nothing to do with its size (10-6
hectares) but rather the Director’s birthday!

The 1922 Ordnance Survey map appears to
show two ponds in the other spur of woodland that
runs almost due north in the centre of the reserve
[Compartment G on the main map]. These dried up
and were subsequently used as ‘earth’ watercress
beds until the 1960s (Wall, 1999). In 1975 these
were dry except for a stream running through them,
but the remains of an earth dam could still be seen
where the lower pond had been. This pond was
restored by the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust in 1982 and
1983, the work paid for with a gift in memory of
Miss Ida Gandy. A further dam was installed in
1997 to restore the upper pond.

LOCATION, GEOLOGY AND
HABITATS

The Vale of Pewsey was formed when the chalk
anticline arching from the Pewsey Downs to
Salisbury Plain was eroded to reveal the underlying
greensand (Barron, 1976, 87 et sequ.). The reserve
covers 33 hectares in the Vale just north-east of

258 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

Ida Gandy Pond

Pewsey itself. There are four entrances, but only
one has direct access to a public road, Dursden
Lane, at SU 169 610.

This gate gives on to Big Forty, at present a wide
expanse of sown grasses and adventitious White
Clover. Straight ahead, looking north-west across
the valley, are the chalk downlands: Martinsell to
the right and, in the distance on the left, Knap Hill
and Walker’s Hill. They stand above the fields of the
Vale: loamy brown-earth soil over the fertile upper
greensand (Soil Survey, 1983). The Kennet & Avon
canal, the northern boundary of the reserve, runs
south-west to north-east. It is hard to see except
where it is crossed by Pains Bridge carrying an
ancient green lane from Pewsey and Knowle up to
the downs. This green lane forms the reserve’s south
west boundary. Along the valley bottom, largely
hidden by trees, the Avon flows through marshy
meadows. These meadows are kept wet by numerous
powerful springs rising through the greensand from
the chalk. The very name ‘Pewsey’ or the Norman
form ‘Pevesei’, as in the quotation from the Domes-
day Book given above, or, even earlier — 880 AD —
‘Pefesigge’ means ‘Pefe’s well-watered place’, but
who Pefe was we have no idea (Gover et al, 1939, 350).

On the reserve, twenty-four categories of habitat
have been identified (Mobsby, 2001). These include
fen and carr; river, streams, ponds, ditches and wet
flushes; woodland, including old trees with nest
holes; large standing and fallen deadwood; parkland
trees and grassland (semi-improved or improved).

The central core of the reserve, the old water
meadows and woods, has been classified as a Site of
Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) since 1975 and is
proposed as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC).
This key part is now surrounded entirely by grazing
land or fen, but is still vulnerable to possible
pollution either from upstream or via the
groundwater.

The River Avon

The eastern headwater of the Salisbury Avon flows
through the reserve. Three streams on the north of
the Vale join to form it: one rises just south of
Clench, another near Wootton Rivers and the third,
Deane Water, comes from just west of Burbage. The
river turns south at Pewsey to cut through the
Salisbury Plain scarp at Upavon, demonstrating
that the river pre-dates the Vale.

THE WILTSHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST’S VERA JEANS NATURE RESERVE 259

At Jones’s Mill, while still in the Vale, it is a
considerable stream. This September, after one of
the driest and hottest summers for many years,
measured just above the bridge where the old
Kepnal Drove crosses the river, it was 32 metres
wide, about 40 centimetres deep and flowing, at the
surface, at about half a metre per second. The
aquifers feeding it are in the chalk, but at the bridge
the water, with a pH of 7.5, is only weakly alkaline.
Bullhead Cottus gobio, River Lamprey Lampetra
fluviatilis, Brown Trout Salmo trutta have all been
recorded, as has Rainbow Trout S. gairdneri but this
last, fortunately, seems to have died out. There are
records of the native White-clawed Crayfish
Austropotamobius pallipes, but now there is a large
population of American Signal Crayfish Pacifastacus
leniusculus, which might have come from a known
escape of farmed crayfish just downstream of the
reserve in the late 70s or early 80s (Wall 1999).

Riverside Meadows and Carr

Although, except in extreme conditions, the
meadows are never flooded, the soil is moist even at
the height of summer. The area is now a mire and

River Avon in North-East Fen

the plant communities which have developed are
classified as fen and carr (Rodwell, 1998a, 30 et
sequ.; Rodwell, 1998b, 24 et sequ. and Rodwell, 2000,
109 et sequ.). The nutrient status of the old meadows
ranges from mesotrophic to eutrophic. The ground
water is calcareous, but deposition of leaf litter over
the years has created a peaty, slightly acid soil. Soil
samples taken at both the east and west ends of the
meadows gave a surface pH value of 6°5 and this
remained constant down through the soil until an
abrupt change to 7-5 at the greensand layer. The
water in the leats had a pH of 7°5.

The leaf litter leads to somewhat drier
conditions with tall herbs and, ultimately, shrubs
and trees. The earlier stages of succession support a
much more diverse and interesting ecosystem. To
preserve these, the meadows are now managed by
maintaining the leats and by grazing by Belted
Galloway cattle — a tough but gentle breed that are
happy to be out of doors all the year round and, in
summer, do well grazing the fen. As can be seen on
the map, there are two main areas of fen, one in the
north-east of the reserve [2 & 3] and the other in the
south-west [5 & 6]. These are separated by an area
of carr [4] which also spreads beyond the probable
extent of the old meadows into some of the wet
flushes at the foot of the north slope of the valley.
The two outer sections are lightly grazed during the
summer. This has had important effects. Selective
eating of the dominant competitive and tall plants
has both reduced the accumulation of leaf litter and
allowed the under-storey to flourish. The treading
of the cattle has opened up pockets of bare soil, so
allowing germination. These factors combine to
make a complex mosaic of vegetation which is by no
means unusual for such sites: the plant
communities found here, while not matching
exactly, are very similar to typical fen and carr
communities elsewhere in southern England. They
are dominated by sedges Carex sp. of which there
are no fewer than fourteen species on the reserve.
Lowland mires are now rare: most have either,
through neglect, proceeded to woodland or,
probably more often, have been deliberately
drained. The SSSI citation describes Jones’s Mill as
‘the best known example of a calcareous valley mire
in Wiltshire’.

The North-East Fen [2 & 3]

The Triple-spotted Pug Eupithecia trisignaria is a
nationally rare moth. Its food plants Wild Angelica
Angelica sylvestris and Hogweed Heracleum
sphondylium grow in many parts of the reserve but

260 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

Leat in north-East Fen

are particularly protected here by excluding the
cattle from about half of a hectare [2]. This small
part has a litter layer some five centimetres thick
and no pockets of bare soil. It is a tall-herb fen with
only a dozen or so plant species, dominated by Reed
Sweet-grass Glyceria maxima, Meadowsweet
Filipendula ulmaria and Cleavers Galium aparine.
There are also fair numbers of Lesser Pond Sedge
Carex acutiformis, Marsh Horsetail Eguisetum
palustre, Stinging Nettle Urtica dioica, Common
Hemp-nettle Galeopsis tetrahit, Wild Angelica and
Common Comfrey Symphytum officinale.

Stinging Nettles are often indicators of
enrichment by human activity but here they are in
their natural habitat — remains of nettles have been
found along with those of typical fen and carr
communities in peat some 13,000 or 14,000 years
old (Godwin, 1975, 432). Many of the Stinging
Nettles on the reserve have few or no stings. This is
not uncommon where nettles grow in the shade but
some, as here, are in the open. It is thought that
stinglessness is an inherited property sometimes
found where there is little grazing (Pollard and
Briggs, 1982, 1984a and 1984b). The familiar
stinging form is a tetraploid, possibly derived from
a stingless diploid (Mabberley, 2002, 739).

A plant in this spot the reserve could well do
without is an introduction from the Himalayas:
Indian Balsam Impatiens glandulifera which first
appeared on the reserve ten years ago. It is weeded
out every year, but is constantly replaced from a
large patch just upstream of the reserve.

Apart from this small fenced-off area, the fen as
far as and including Jones’s Mill Mead [3] (about
2:5 hectares in all) was grazed for 6 to 8 weeks
during September and October in 1984 and 1985.
During the next two years it was hand cut and
raked. Since then every year until 2002 it has been

grazed by two or three Belted Galloways between
April and the end of October. This year (2003)
unfortunately it was not grazed until very late in the
year, but there is every intention of continuing the
previous grazing regime next year. Even just
beyond the fence the picture here is very different
from where the fen is ungrazed. The leaf litter is
barely 1 centimetre thick and there are numerous
hoof-sized pockets with vigorous germination. In
2002 I recorded twenty-nine species of vascular
plants from a15 x 15 metres plot near the fence, of
which the dominants were Lesser Pond-sedge
C. acutiformis and Soft Rush Juncus effusus.
Meadowsweet F ulmaria was still found but only
about a third as often, while Reed Sweet-grass
G. maxima — much liked and sought out by the
Belties — occurred even less. Both are grazed down
before they can flower. After the dominants, the
next commonest species in the quadrat was Greater
Bird’s-foot-trefoil Lotus pedunculatus whose yellow
flowers are a conspicuous feature of the reserve in
July. Every plant in the quadrat is found
throughout the grazed fen. In spring Marsh-

Trises in Fones’s Mill Mead

THE WILTSHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST’S VERA JEANS NATURE RESERVE 261

marigold Caltha palustris and Cuckooflower, or
Lady’s Smock Cardamine pratensis stand out as
does, a little later, Ragged Robin Lychnis flos-cuculi,
although this last is not present in such numbers as
the others. Other frequent plants include Marsh
Horsetail FE. palustre, Water Forget-me-not Myosotis
scorpioides, Meadow Vetchling Lathyrus pratensis,
Water Mint Mentha aquatica, Fen Bedstraw Galium
uliginosum and Common _ Valerian Valeriana
officinalis.

il d ! Ba ie Na

Yellow Iris with Hybrid Common Spotted-orchids

Moving westwards, out of the quadrat but still
within the north-east section [3], there is a small
but detectable increase in wetness and along with it
(although there is no evidence that it is the cause)
there is increasing diversity of vegetation. The most

_obvious addition is the Yellow Iris Iris pseudacorus
which is locally dominant, and which certainly
adds greatly to the attractiveness of the reserve.
There are other less conspicuous but botanically
interesting delights. Marsh Valerian Valeriana
dioica is widespread and there are isolated patches
of Bogbean Menyanthes trifoliata, Common Cotton-
grass Eriophorum angustifolium, and Bottle Sedge
Carex rostrata. The last three are all indicative of
acid soils, particularly the Cotton-grass. All four are

Wiltshire rarities: during the 1980s the Flora
Mapping Project found them in only 87 (2%), 20
(<1%), 11 and 4 kilometre squares respectively
(this and all subsequent references to plant status in
Wiltshire are taken from Gillam, 1993). Also of note
are a few specimens of Bulrush or Greater Reedmace
Typha latifolia and of Common Spotted-orchid
Dactylorhiza fuchsu. Some of this latter species grow
very tall, and are probably hybrids with Southern
Marsh-orchid Dactylorhiza praetermissa.

Along the north edge of Jones’s Mill Mead are
several pollarded Crack Willows Salix fragilis.
Beside the hard track across the fen, the probable
continuation of Kepnal Drove mentioned above,
are a few shrubs (Alder Alnus glutinosa, Hawthorn
Crataegus monogyna and Holly Ilex aquifolium) and
some brambles Rubus fruticosus. These seemingly
fairly insignificant features serve as important
shelter for several species of fauna, as we shall see
below.

The Central Carr [4]
On crossing the next fence, out of the grazed area
into the central section of the SSSI, there is an even

pe ei wa

Southern Marsh-orchid

262 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

2 a

more dramatic change to a late stage of fenland
succession: willow and alder carr surrounding an
earlier stage of as yet ungrazed Tussock Sedge fen.
Part of this section has been fenced with the
intention of grazing it in the near future.

As mentioned above, the carr extends north-
westwards into the wet flushes and around the two
ponds, making a total area of five hectares in all.
The area around the ponds [G] and bordering the
Avon [D] have been woodland for many years, but
aerial photographs show that the carr between them
[B and C] is comparatively recent in origin. Here in
1946 there were no trees or bushes except in the
hedgelines; by 1958 a scatter of trees had appeared
and by 1972 these were larger but still scattered,
with none of the closed canopy that we have today.
The open fen is dominated by Great Horsetail
Equisetum telmateia, Reed Sweet-grass G. maxima
and Meadowsweet Fi ulmaria. Along one of the
streams are several Greater Reedmace T° latifolia,
and in another is Lesser Water-parsnip Berula
erecta, which is rare in Wiltshire, particularly in the
southern vice-county. Other typical fen plants
found here are Common Valerian V. officinalis,

Marsh Valerian V. dioica and Square-stalked St.
John’s-wort Hypericum tetrapterum. There are
impressively large Greater Tussock-sedge Carex
paniculata, especially along the edges of the streams,
which together with the primeval Horsetails give
the area a very special character. Tussock Sedge is
now very rare in Wiltshire, being found in only 1%
of the kilometre squares but was once ‘locally
plentiful particularly in the Vale of Pewsey’ (Grose
1957, 589). The central fen is also the best part of
the reserve for the extremely rare Desmoulin’s
Whorl-snail Vertigo moulinsiana, a Red Data Book
species that is common on the reserve.

The principal trees in the carr are Alder
A. glutinosa, Grey Willow Salix cinerea and Crack
Willow S. fragilis. In the drier places there are a few
Pedunculate Oak Quercus robur and Ash Fraxinus
excelsior. The shrubs include Hawthorn C. monogyna
and Elder Sambucus nigra with a few Guelder-rose
Viburnum opulus in open areas. The herb layer
within the carr is principally Lesser Pond-sedge
C. acutiformis, Yellow Iris I. pseudacorus — which

Great Horsetail

A tall exotic conifer was to have been felled as
an unwanted alien, until it was realised that it was a
favourite nest site for Sparrowhawks Accipiter nisus.
There are several tall dead trees both standing and
fallen, some with big root plates. Along the edge of
the northern spur of the carr several willows have
been pollarded and the resulting large logs left in
piles. All this provides excellent habitats,
particularly for bees and beetles.

Important plants on the northern edges of the
carr, both along a path and where it merges into
open fen, include Hemp-agrimony Eupatorium
cannabinum, Wild Angelica A. sylvestris and
Common Comfrey S. officinale. On the edge of the
path itself can be found Southern Marsh-orchid D.

THE WILTSHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST’S VERA JEANS NATURE RESERVE 263

River Avon in South-west Fen

praetermissa and Water Avens Geum rivale, both
strong indicators of mesotrophic conditions.
Where the carr borders the River Avon there are
extensive patches of Opposite-leaved Golden-
saxifrage Chrysosplenium oppositifolium. South of the
river there are just a few metres of level ground and
then another few of steep scarp up to the gentler
slope of Big Forty and its dry grassland. There is
considerable seepage of water at various levels on the
scarp, so there is a gradation from carr at the bottom
to ordinary woodland or hedgerow conditions at the
top. (This seepage was heavily laced with fertilizer
from the arable — one of the main reasons for its
purchase by the Trust.) In the carr are Brooklime
Veronica beccabunga and Blue Water-speedwell Vv
anagallis-aquatica. One specimen of the latter,
“growing this year on the bank where the river enters
the carr, was quite remarkable for being 1:5 metres
tall — three times its usual maximum height. It is
thought to be probably a hybrid with Pink Water-
speedwell V. anagallis-aquatica * catenata = V. X
lackschewitzii which is often more robust (Stace
1992, 722). In the drier parts are Moschatel or Town-
hall Clock Adoxa moschatellina, an ancient woodland
indicator, Primroses Primula vulgaris, Bluebells

Ayacinthoides non-scripta and Bracken Pteridium
aquilinum. Stone Parsley Sison amomum grows right
beside the path, but has only just been noticed — it is
probably a recent introduction. The Flora Mapping
Project found it only in the north-west and south-
east of Wiltshire, but describe it as a plant of ‘poorly
tended footpaths’.

The South-west Fen [5 & 6]

The south-west section covers about three hectares
in all. (As this is the most sensitive part of the
reserve, access is restricted: visitors wishing to be
admitted to it should apply to the Trust or directly
to me.) Mostly it is tall-herb fen through which
flows the Avon lined by mature Alders A. glutinosa.
Since 1994 the fen [5] has been grazed during the
summer, currently by seven Belted Galloways. Of
the dominant plants, Great Horsetail E. telmateia,
Meadowsweet F ulmaria, Yellow Iris I. pseudacorus
and Reed Sweet-grass G. maxima, which 1s locally
dominant appears to depend on the wetness of the
soil but this has not yet been tested properly. The
plants of the north-east fen occur here as well with
some additions such as Branched Bur-reed
Sparganium erectum, Southern Marsh-orchid

264 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

D. praetermissa (and its hybrids with D. fuchsi) and
Small Nettle Urtica urens. Greater Pond-sedge
C. riparia 1s rather more common here. The Water
Dock Rumex hydrolapathum is a prominent feature
along the streams. There is a very small colony — in
some years only one spike — of Green-flowered
Helleborine Epipactis phyllanthes, which is rare not
only in Wiltshire — found in only eight 1 x 1
kilometre squares — but also nationally.

Green-flowered Helleborine

Within this tall fen there is about a quarter of a
hectare where the peat is floating. Part of it has a
short turf and, unusually for the reserve, a lot of
moss. This kind of mire is typical of spongy peat
moistened by calcareous, base-rich waters. Here are
large numbers of Bogbean, M. trifoliata and of
Marsh Arrow-grass Triglochin palustre. This latter
species was found in only nineteen kilometre
squares by the Wiltshire Flora Mapping Project. At
one time it was struggling on the reserve under
competition from grasses and sedges. Grazing at
this colony, and close cutting and light trampling
during the winter (inadvertent but, as it turned out,
beneficial) in the compartment mentioned next,
have restored its fortunes and now, in 2003, there
are hundreds of spikes.

Bogbean

Adjacent to the grazed fen, but fenced off from
it, is another Carex-dominated mire covering about
three quarters of a hectare [6]. It would be difficult
to manage cattle on it, so it is not grazed but cut and
raked every winter. (The raked heaps form excellent
breeding grounds for the Grass Snakes Natrix natrix
which are a feature of the reserve.) Not only does
this small enclosure have the richest flora of the
reserve with several Wiltshire rarities, but there are
within it fascinating juxtapositions of plants
characteristic of acid and of alkaline soils.

As an indication of its richness, of the 81 species
of vascular plants listed for the south-west fen, 31
are found only here. It also has many species of
moss, including a small patch of Sphagnum palustre.

Bogbean sward in South-west Fen

THE WILTSHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST’S VERA JEANS NATURE RESERVE 265

Of the Wiltshire rarities, as well as Common
Cotton-grass EF. angustifolium which also grows in
Jones Mill Mead, there are five others found in only
2% or fewer of the kilometre squares in Wiltshire.
The beautiful littke Bog Pimpernel Anagallis
tenella forms two patches, each about a metre
across, that are bright pink when the flowers come
in late June. This plant was found in only thirteen
of the kilometre squares, which is less than 1% of
them. Even rarer in Wiltshire is the Flea Sedge
Carex pulicaris. Stace (1992, 978) describes its
habitat as ‘bogs, fens and flushes, usually base
rich’ so the plants growing here at Jones’s Mill are
behaving normally. In Wiltshire it is catholic in its
tastes, growing in mesotrophic to eutrophic

Water Avens

conditions and in mires or on dry chalky
grassland, but even so in only seven kilometre
squares. Purple Moor-grass Molinia caerulea has
been found in only twenty-nine kilometre squares
— fewer than 1% — and almost all of these are
concentrated on the New Forest heaths in the
south-east corner of the county. The remaining
two species rare in Wiltshire but found in this
enclosure are Heath Wood-rush Luzula multiflora
and Brown Sedge C. disticha.

The soil is acidic peat and the tussocky nature
of the terrain has some of it bathed in alkaline
ground-water while other parts stand proud. The
calcifuges Common Cotton-grass, Bog Pimpernel,
Heath Wood-rush and Purple Moor-grass, all
mentioned above, as well as Tormentil Potentilla
erecta, Carnation Sedge C. panicea and Common
Sedge C. nigra grow side-by-side with the calcicoles
Common Spotted-orchid D. fuchsi and Quaking
Grass Briza media.

Two other plants from this small, botanically
rich patch are worthy of note: Water Avens
G. rivale, seen already in the carr but more
abundant here, and Devil’s-bit Scabious Succisa
pratensis, the food plant of the caterpillars of the
Marsh Fritillary, Eurodryas aurinia, referred to
below.

Fields on the Valley Slopes

The Northern Fields

These meadows [J, K and L] were bougnt by the
Trust in 1995 as a buffer zone and to provide winter
grazing for the Belted Galloways. They are also
grazed during the summer with his own cattle by
the contract farmer who looks after the Belties.

The western fields are improved grassland of
little botanical interest, but the eastern one [L] —-
the one which has medieval ridge and furrow — is
only semi-improved and has much more diversity.
There are several plants of Pignut Conopodium
majus in the drier part at the top of the field and
lower down many of the fenland plants, including
several Common Spotted-orchids D. fuchsi and
Bottle Sedge C. rostrata, which has only just
colonised this part. Since the Trust has owned them
none of the fields have been treated with fertilizer
or pesticide and nor, of course, will they be in the
future.

There are isolated oaks Q. robur — one of them
developing a ‘stag’s head’ of dead branches — and
some fine standard oaks in the hedgerows. Cuttings
of the native Black-poplar Populus nigra have been
planted. These were taken from one of several male
trees a few miles downstream.

The wet flushes in all these fields have not yet
been studied properly, but may well be of great
interest for the many invertebrates that rely on
seepages. Although small in area, as they are
geological features they are likely to have existed a
very long time, possibly thousands of years. It is
this continuity which could make them of great
ecological significance. Soldier flies often breed in

266 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE

such places including three that have been recorded
on the reserve: Oplodontha viridula, Oxycera
nigricornis and O. trilineata.

The large logs produced by pollarding have
been piled at the edges of these fields near the
willows from which they came. Being out in the
open in sunny places, they are warm and relatively
dry — it is unusual for logs in such a situation to be
left in place, so they form a comparatively rare
habitat. The nationally notable longhorn beetle
Leptura quadrifasciata was recorded on them in 1997
and again last year, when four were seen, two of
them mating. Leaf-cutter bees and solitary wasps
have been seen using the beetle exit holes, but they
have not been identified to species level.

The Southern Fields: Big Forty

The single large arable field to the south of the then
reserve was bought by the Trust in October 1997 to
protect the main part of the reserve. During the first
year a maize crop was planted (without fertilizer or
other dressing) and cut to reduce the fertility of the
land. The field was then put down to grass. This is
cut twice a year for silage, again in order to reduce
fertility. Eighty-six species of native flowering
plants and several mosses have been found here ina
recent survey. Unfortunately, an agricultural strain
of White Clover Titfolium repens has established
itself, which is busily putting the nitrogen back.
The one large field has been divided into three by a
broad belt and triangle containing 3820 hedging
plants, including 860 hazel, 1120 hawthorn, several
blocks of gors

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